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GRANVILLE, W. Va. - Justin Journette smashed his sixth home run of the year as part of a six-run first inning for the State College Spikes en route to a 6-3 victory over the West Virginia Black Bears on Wednesday night at Kendrick Family Ballpark to stop a four-game losing streak.
Journette's 434-foot, three-run blast to left-center field boosted the State College (16-12 2nd Half) lead to 5-0. The homer was a mere 33 feet shy of his July 21 homer at Williamsport that served as the longest measured home run in MLB Draft League history.
11 batters came to the plate for the Spikes in the first inning, with Nyan Hayes reaching on an error to start the inning, then contributing the first of his three hits later in the same frame. Hayes has now collected three or more hits in a game four times in the second half of this season.
Camden Ross extended his on-base streak to 24 games, just two away from the Spikes franchise record set by Rowan Wick in 2014, with his RBI single in the first. Ross delivered two hits in the game for his 17th multi-hit game of the season.
Despite Elijah Cook's 431-foot solo shot, his second homer of the season, in the third, State College was able to coast home for the win with Patrick Morris (5) pitching a perfect ninth for the save.
Spikes starter Caleb Ruter struck out seven batters over the first four innings before giving way to Josh Gentile (1-0), who earned credit for the win with 2 2/3 innings of work in which he was charged with one run while working around three hits and a walk. Charlie Smith then tossed 1 1/3 scoreless innings before handing the baton to Morris to finish.
Black Bears (14-16 2nd Half) starter Aydan Decker-Petty (1-1) took the loss after allowing all six runs, none of them earned, in a total of two innings of work.