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State College Spikes

Spikes Game Notes

August 3, 2007 - New York-Penn League (NYPL)
State College Spikes News Release


State College Spikes (20 - 22) @ Auburn Doubledays (25-18)

Friday, August 2 -- 7:05 p.m.

Falcon Park - Auburn, NY

Game # 43 / Road Game #22

RHP Moises Robles (1-7, 4.23) vs. LHP Luis Perez (1-2, 3.63)

STATE COLLEGE STARTER: RHP MOISES ROBLES will make his ninth start of the season when he toes the rubber for State College this evening. Robles has a decision in all of his previous appearances and has been tagged with the loss in his last five outings. In 44.2 innings of work this season, the opposition is hitting .297 against Robles. In five starts on the road, Robles is 1-4 with a 4.23 ERA. In 26.0 innings of work, he has allowed 15 earned runs on 32 hits while walking four and striking out 17. Robles has lost his last five decisions, including his last start on July 28th against Auburn. Robles allowed only one run on five hits over 6.1 innings of work. Robles was selected in the Rule 5 Draft in 2007 from the New York Mets. In 2006 with the DSL Mets, Robles posted a 1-2 record with a 0.60 ERA over his 30.0 innings of work. He allowed only two earned runs on 23 hits while walking six and striking out 28.

AUBURN STARTER: LHP LUIS PEREZ will make his tenth start of the season tonight against State College. The southpaw from Guayubin, DR is 1-2 with a 3.63 ERA so far this year. Perez has struck out 32 batters while walking 20 in 34.2 innings of work. Perez is considerably better on the road than at Falcon Park in Auburn. Despite an 0-1 record on the road, Luis' ERA is 1.96 compared to 5.51 at home. The best start of the year for Perez came on June 28 at Historic Bowman Field against the Williamsport Crosscutters, where he gave up just six hits over 8.0 innings of work striking out six to earn his first (and only) victory of the 2007 season.

WHAT'S ON TAP: The State College Spikes will look to build on last evening's offensive outburst when they take on the Auburn Doubledays in the middle game of three. The Spikes are now 20-22 and 4.5 games behind Auburn for the Pinckney Division lead.

LAST NIGHT'S GAME: After scoring only five runs in their three straight losses to the Scrappers, the Spikes had their best offensive performance in nearly a month as they beat the Auburn Doubledays 8-3 on Thursday evening. The 12 hits and eight runs scored were the most for the Spikes since a 9-3 victory over the Batavia Muckdogs on July 3rd. Duke Welker (2-1) got the win for the Spikes after tossing five shutout innings, allowing only two hits while striking out five. Nick Stillwagon and Justin Byler each hit a home run as the Spikes ran away with the win.

HOMER HAPPY VALLEY: Last night, the Spikes hit two home runs en route to their 8-4 victory over Auburn. It was the first multi- home run game for the Spikes since July 19th, when the Spikes had three home runs in a 5-4 victory over the Hudson Valley Renegades.

In addition, Nick Stillwagon's fourth inning home run with Bobby Spain on base was only the fourth home run for the Spikes with a runner on base. The other 16 home runs that State College has hit have all been of the solo variety.

RUN SCORING RENAISSANCE: Last evening the Spikes scored eight runs on 12 hits, which was their highest offensive outing since July 3rd against the Batavia Muckdogs. Coming into last night's action the Spikes had scored eight runs in their previous five games combined.

RUNS ARE AT A PREMIUM: The State College Spikes have scored only 141 runs this season, by far the lowest total in the league. The 141 runs in 41 games is an average of 3.4 runs per game. The NYPL league average is 4.8 runs per game with the Brooklyn Cyclones leading the way at 5.275 runs per game.

CAN'T COMEBACK: The Spikes are 0-20 in games when they are trailing after seven innings this season. Last year, the late inning rally was the trademark of the Spikes as the team had 12 wins in their last turn at-bats. This season they only have one win in their last at-bat, (July 4th against Williamsport) when Michael Ambrose was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 10th.

HOT LIKE FIYA: 1B Justin Byler has been swinging the hottest bat on the team over the last five games. The slugger is hitting .471 (8-for-17) with five runs scored In those five games, the Spikes have scored only 16 runs and Byler has been involved of seven of those 16 runs.

CATCH ‘EM IF YOU CAN: With last night's stolen base for Auburn, the Spikes have now allowed a league-high 61 swipes. In addition, with the stolen base last evening the opposition has now stolen at least one base in 10 straight games. Over that span opposing teams are 13-for-16.

The Spikes have caught only 13 of 74 attempted base stealers for a league low .178 caught stealing percentage. Andrew Walker has thrown out 7-of-29 for a .241 success rate, while Nick Stillwagon has thrown out only 3-of-31 for a league low .097 caught stealing percentage.

Tonight's opponent, the Auburn Doubledays, have thrown out 17-of-52 for a .327 caught stealing percentage, good for fifth in the league. J.P Arencibia, Auburn's starting catcher, has thrown out 11 of 39 would-be base stealers.

NO RUNS FOR ROBLES: Tonight's starter RHP Moises Robles leads the league with seven losses, but has been a victim of the lack or run support most of his outings. In Robles' eight starts the Spikes have scored only 15 runs total. In his seven losses the Spikes have never scored more than three runs.

ALL-STAR GAME: The 3rd Annual NYPL All-Star Game will be held on August 14th at Dutchess Stadium home of the Hudson Valley Renegades. The coaching staff and players for the game are expected to be announced on Monday, August 6th. Last season, the Spikes were represented by Allen Craig, Nathan Southard and A.J Van Slyke at the game which was played at Ripken Stadium in Aberdeen, Maryland.

CHANGE OF GAME TIME: The game scheduled for September 7th between the Mahoning Valley Scrappers and State College Spikes has been changed from 7:05 p.m to 5:05 p.m. The game time has been changed to accommodate the events surrounding the Penn State vs. Notre Dame football game to be played on September 8th,

AROUND THE ORGANIZATION: Indianapolis (57-55) won at Richmond 4-3. 2B Brian Bixler went 2-for-4 with two doubles, a walk and two RBI... Altoona (57-52) beat Reading 5-1 behind RHP Kip Bouknight's 8.1 innings of one run ball ... Lynchburg (46-60) lost at Kinston 22-10. RHP Jean Garavito suffered the loss after allowing six runs in only 1.1 innings of work ... Hickory (52-56) lost at Charleston 5-3. OF Alex Presley went 1-for-4 with a walk ... Bradenton (14-21) was postponed due to rain.

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