AUBURN, N.Y. - Wes Freeman and Alex Dickerson combined for six hits to power a 12-hit attack in support of Nick Kingham as the State College Spikes jumped on the Auburn Doubledays early and earned a 6-1 win to end their six-game road trip on Monday night at Falcon Park.
The Spikes (24-38) jumped out to the lead in the second inning as Derek Trent scored on an error and Taylor Lewis crossed the plate on an RBI single by Ashley Ponce to make it 2-0, State College.
After both collected singles in the first inning, Freeman and Dickerson then continued their productive nights with back-to-back doubles to lead off the third inning and give the Spikes a 3-0 lead. Dan Gamache kept the offense rolling with a base hit to right field that brought Dickerson home for a four-run State College advantage.
Lewis went on score his second run of the game in the fourth inning on a wild pitch, and came home for the third time when Freeman doubled off the top of the left field wall in the sixth inning to make it 6-0, Spikes. Both Freeman and Dickerson finished the evening 3-for-5 with a run batted in, but Freeman collected a pair of two-base hits to Dickerson's one.
Kingham (4-2) took full advantage of the lead afforded to him. In five innings, the right- hander allowed just two hits to Auburn's (38-24) Caleb Ramsey and struck out six Doubledays batters. It was the eighth straight start in which Kingham went five innings or more on the mound while yielding one or less runs. The Pirates' fourth-round draft pick in 2010 also lowered his earned run average to 2.36 for the year, which ranks in the top five in the New York-Penn League.
Auburn notched its only run in the eighth inning when Angelberth Montilla doubled off of State College reliever Joan Montero and scored on Jeremy Mayo's single two batters later.
Kevin Kleis added two scoreless, one-hit innings on the hill for the Spikes, and Josh Poytress finished the game with a scoreless ninth inning.
