Miners can't claw back vs. Paints

Jul. 30—Nathan Riddle pitched five dominant innings for West Virginia Friday night.

Unfortunately, that all came after a disastrous first inning.

Chillicothe got to Riddle for seven runs before the Miners had a chance to bat and this time made it stick for a 10-5 win at Linda K. Epling Stadium.

"Take away the first inning," Miners manager Tim Epling said. "Just take it away. After the first inning, Riddle probably threw the best he threw all year."

From innings two through six, Riddle held the Paints to three hits and one run. One of those hits was a solo home run by Cam Bowen, but the other two were left on base.

As for that first inning ...

The Paints got their first four batters on base, including a run-scoring single by Brett Carson. Then it started to look like Riddle might get out of it when he struck out Bowen looking and got Hunter Klotz to hit a ground ball to first baseman Andrew Patterson, who threw home to force Owen Wilson from third.

But Jake Reifsnyder — a 2021 Miner playing against his former team for the first time — hit a fly ball to right field that got past a diving Noah Canterbury for a bases-clearing triple and 4-0 Chillicothe lead.

Nate Dorinsky drove in Reifsnyder with a double and then scored on Gianni Passarelli's single, the sixth hit of the inning. Passarelli scored the seventh run when Santrel Farmer, batting for the second time, reached on an error.

Wilson flied out to center on Riddle's 34th pitch to finally end the inning.

Riddle (2-3) threw only 48 pitches over the next five innings. His final line was eight runs on nine hits with a pair of strikeouts and just one walk.

His biggest problem in the first was not finishing off hitters after getting ahead in the count. Reifsnyder's triple came when he was down 0-2.

"Sometimes you've got to throw your breaking stuff with conviction," Epling said. "Sometimes when it's not coming out of (the hand) clean, it comes out of there flat. When he gets through the ball a little bit, he's got a very good curveball. I think it's a feeling process. At the beginning of the game or after you throw an inning, your body starts getting a little bit tired and that's when you snap it off better. So at the beginning he was just not getting through the ball like he normally has and that was it."

The Miners were playing at home for the first time since July 16, also against the Paints, who scored six runs in the first inning that night. But the Miners put together a pair of six-run innings and went on to win 13-8.

They couldn't do it this time around, although they had their chances. The Miners left 11 runners on base, and wasted a big opportunity when reliever Anthony Steele walked four of the Miners' first five hitters — Eddie Leon with the bases loaded — to start the fifth. But he got Blake Lazaris to hit into a 6-3 double play to end it.

"Ten runs is 10 runs, but we got double-digit hits. We haven't had that for a long time," Epling said. "We were just one or two hits from really getting back in it, I thought."

The Miners cut Chillicothe's lead to 8-4 in the sixth on a two-run double from Silas Butler, but the Paints got them back with single runs in the seventh and eighth innings.

Steele (1-0) was credited with the win despite walking four and allowing three runs on three hits in two innings. Starter Dawson Gage was pulled after four innings and held the Miners to one run on three hits.

Leon finished with three RBIs for the Miners, including a long home run over the scoreboard in left to start the ninth. It was his team-leading eighth of the season.

The teams will meet again Saturday in Chillicothe at 7:05 p.m. The Miners will then host a doubleheader against Johnstown Sunday at 2:05 p.m.

Notes: Several Miners made their debuts Friday night. Henry Jamieson, Connor Fizer and Wyatt Crisp all singled in their first at-bats. Braden Shepherd, a 2022 Huntington graduate who will play at West Virginia State, pitched a scoreless seventh, Brad Miller was tagged for a run over 2/3 of an inning but did not allow a hit and Eli Brogan retired all four batters he faced. ... The 2022 West Virginia Miners trading card promotion has been moved to Friday when the Miners host Johnstown.

Email: gfauber@register-herald.com; follow on Twitter @gfauber5