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GRANVILLE, W. Va. - Camden Ross extended his on-base streak to 25 games and Justin Journette delivered a laser shot to left field for his seventh homer of the year, but the State College Spikes saw their 6-0 lead dwindle until Zack Thompson hit a walk-off grand slam to give the West Virginia Black Bears a 10-8 win on Thursday night at Kendrick Family Ballpark.
Journette's two-run, line-drive homer into the Spikes (16-1315 2nd Half) bullpen in the fifth capped a four-run frame and gave State College a six-run lead. The long ball left the bat at 110 miles per hour, the second-hardest hit homer in the MLB Draft League this season.
Jacoby Long also helped the Spikes with three hits, including a double, and had a hand in each of the first four State College runs by scoring three and knocking in the other.
However, West Virginia (15-16 2nd Half) started to come back with Ben Barrett's RBI triple and Thompson's run-scoring double in the sixth.
Ross extended the Spikes' lead back to 7-2 and drew to within a game of the franchise's record on-base streak with an RBI double to left-center field in his last at-bat of the night. Ross can now tie Rowan Wick's streak, set as Wick concluded his time with the Spikes in 2014, on Friday night in Trenton.
The Black Bears took advantage of three Spikes errors in the eighth to trim the margin to 7-5 before Nyan Hayes, who notched two hits and a stolen base at the plate, threw Barrett out at the plate to end the inning.
State College added an apparent insurance run in the ninth on Hayes's RBI single before Owen Petrich led off the bottom half with a walk. After Elijah Cook singled and Cayden Gaskin struck out, 2024 Spikes infielder Blake Wilson loaded the bases with a single to left field in his West Virginia debut.
Barrett was then hit by a pitch to bring in a run before Thompson launched his second grand slam in the space of a week to right field to win the game for the Black Bears.
Patrick Morris (2-1) took the loss on the mound for the Spikes, while Dawson Hall (1-1) picked up the win for West Virginia.
State College starter Trey Cehajic put together the longest outing of the year for any Spikes pitcher by going 5 2/3 innings and yielding two runs on four hits and a walk while striking out seven batters, tied for second-most in a single outing for the Spikes this season.