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WILLIAMSPORT - Camden Ross smashed the 21st grand slam in State College Spikes history and Justin Journette became the second Spike with two homers in the same game to help trim a 9-0 deficit to 9-7, but the Williamsport Crosscutters held on to take a 13-7 slugfest on Monday night at Journey Bank Ballpark at Historic Bowman Field.
After Josh Willits (1-0) shut out the Spikes (5-5 2nd Half) through the first six innings, Journette walloped his third home run of the season, a 362-foot, two-run shot to left field, to put State College on the board.
The Spikes put more of a hurt on a beleaguered Crosscutters (7-3 2nd Half) bullpen in the eighth inning. Nyan Hayes led off with a single, then, after a Ryan Rivera groundout, moved up to second base when CJ Richmond was hit with a pitch by Williamsport reliever James McCoy. Hayes went on steal third base before McCoy hit Jackson Rains on the arm with another pitch to load the bases.
Ross then faced the next man in, Preston Drebes, and drilled his first pitch for a a 339-foot shot to the Spikes bullpen in left field to etch his name into the Spikes history books. The grand slam was the Spikes' first since September 1 of last year, when TJ Salvaggio achieved the feat in Williamsport, and added to a list that includes major leaguers Alex Dickerson, David Washington, Andy Young and Lars Nootbaar.
Journette followed with his second dinger, a 362-foot solo shot to eighth, to mark the second back-to-back homers of the 2026 Spikes season and become the second Spike with two homers in a game after Tyree Reed on June 3 in Mahoning Valley.
However, the Crosscutters answered with four runs in the third, three of them on a double from Nicholas Romano, who had made two sensational diving stops at third base earlier in the night.
Matthew Williams hit his second homer of the year for Williamsport, a two-run shot to left, in the third as part of a four-RBI game.
Spikes starter Trey Cehajic (1-1) took the loss after being charged with seven runs on nine hits while striking out three batters over three innings.
Willits yielded just two hits, a walk and a hit batsman while striking out five batters for the win.