Miners pitching shines in doubleheader split with Kings

Jun. 9—It wasn't a doubleheader sweep, but the West Virginia Miners can take to the road with something positive to build on.

Starting pitcher Ben Cornelius was dominant through five innings to lead the Miners in a 6-2 win over the Champion City Kings in the nightcap Wednesday at Linda K. Epling Stadium.

In the opener, Scotty Kato was impressive in his mound debut for the Miners but was victimized by three errors behind him in a 6-3 loss.

Cornelius (1-1) struck out eight and walked two while allowing a run and six hits. It was a far cry from his first start in last week's 14-5 season-opening loss to Johnstown, when he lasted only three innings.

"The first time out it was raining a little bit, the ball was sticking to his hand," Miners manager Tim Epling said. "He really, really commanded — you could tell he was in control of the game. He just had a certain presence and that was good."

The Miners led 4-1 before Peyton Brown's two-run single added plenty of distance.

Jayson Kmejkoski's RBI groundout scored Alex Ryan, who had tripled, for the Kings' final run in the seventh.

Kevin Shea drove in a pair of runs for the Miners (2-4).

Left-hander Hayden Frank tossed the final two innings for the Miners, striking out five and walking none while holding the Kings to two hits.

"He's going to be really special," Epling said of Frank. "I think they want him to be a starter next year (at Lipscomb), so we're going to do some things to get him prepared for that."

In the first game, Kato (0-1) went 4 2/3 innings, striking out five and walking one while allowing eight hits. He gave up five runs but two were unearned as he exited with the Kings leading 5-3.

"He threw a lot of strikes," Epling said. "For the first time out, I know he's nervous. He kept the ball around the plate. I liked his first outing. How many walks did he have (one)? You can't say anything bad about that."

The misfortune began at the start when Kings leadoff hitter Jayson Zmejkoski singled on the first pitch of the game, stole second and went to third when the throw with right-handed hitter Nick Dolan up found its way to center field. Zmejkoski scored on a sacrifice fly by Patrick Fultz.

Trailing 3-2 in the fourth, the Kings took advantage of two more Miners errors to take the lead for good.

Second baseman Devin Hooper couldn't field Edrick Padilla's ground ball to start the inning, and Jonah Sutton followed with a single. The Miners momentarily caught a break when Trey Carter popped up a bunt that catcher Jake Killingsworth easily caught for the first out.

Left-hander Greg Gregory then rolled a potential double play ball to second, but Hooper again lost the handle and the bases were loaded.

Kato walked Ryan to drive in Padilla with the tying run. Sutton then scored on a wild pitch to put the Kings ahead 4-3.

An RBI double by Sutton with two out in the fifth chased Kato, who threw 82 pitches.

The Miners scored all their runs in the third. Coby Tweten walked to lead it off, moved to second on a groundout and scored on Barrett Riebock's double just out of the reach of a diving Ryan in center field. Eddie Leon came up and hit his second two-run home run in as many Wednesdays, this one a laser that had plenty of distance but was barely high enough to clear the wall.

The Kings added an insurance run off Miners reliever Gavin Smith in the sixth.

Connor Lockwood (1-1) logged a complete game — which didn't come without a bit of controversy. When he struck out Killingsworth for the first out of the seventh, it was with his 89th pitch, four over the limit of 85. Lockwood stayed on and got Tweten to ground into a double play on his 91st pitch.

The pitch count was not properly communicated to the Champion City dugout.

Lockwood allowed six hits and three earned runs, struck out five and walked one.

Overall it was a promising night for the Miners pitching staff, which went into the doubleheader with the second-highest earned run average in the Prospect League.

"For the most part we got great pitching," Epling said. "They kept the ball around the plate."

The Miners will embark on a four-game road trip starting with Thursday's game at Champion City (6:35 p.m.). Then it's off to Terre Haute for two on Friday and Saturday and back to Champion City on Sunday before a day off Monday.

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