Rise and Shine in Morning Game Blowout at Batavia

Batavia, N.Y. - The Crosscutters racked up a season-high in runs in an 11-4 blowout win at the first-place Batavia Muckdogs in a game that began Tuesday morning.

Hunter Hearn (5th) and Nate Fassnacht (2nd) both launched homers to left while Jake Holmes had four RBI on a 3-for-4 game including a bases-clearing double in the eighth. Johan Rojas was 3-for-4 with a double and an RBI. 

Starting pitcher Jose Conopoima (1-3) was stellar in his first win and best outing of the season going five strong innings of two-hit shutout ball with five strikeouts. 

The Cutters raced out to a 4-0 lead on Batavia pitcher Jackson Rose (L, 5-5) with four runs in the first. Hearn's two-run shot capped the opening-inning rally. 

Then Fassnacht extended the lead with a solo home run in the fourth for a 5-0 cushion. The Cutters finished their big day with a five-run rally in the eighth to take an 11-0 lead. Batavia (38-32) put together four runs in the bottom of the ninth to break Williamsport's shutout bid.

Williamsport (29-40) took two out of three in the series scoring in double-digits both times. The Cutters have won three of their last four.
Four straight singles right after the 11:06 a.m. first pitch set the early tone for the Crosscutters. Bryson Stott hit lead-off for the first time and singled up the middle which was followed by a well-placed bunt up the first-base line by Jake Holmes. Johan Rojas lined a hit to right-center to plate Stott for a 1-0 lead and Kendall Simmons looped a hit to shallow left-center to make it 2-0.
Rudy Rott lined into a hard double-play to the third baseman but Hearn took advantage of Rose leaving a pitch up in the zone, and in his wheelhouse, for a two-run bomb to left.
Fassnacht did similar in the fourth on his solo home run to left. The eighth-round selection from Ephrata, Pa. had just celebrated his first career home run on Friday but did not have to wait nearly as long to record his second.
Conopoima took advantage of the early run support by providing his best pitching of the season. He gave up a second-inning double to Sean Reynolds but after that recorded 11 straight outs before an infield single in the fifth broke up his run. Conopoima became the second Cutters starter to last five innings and also the second starter to record a win joining Tyler Burch who accomplished the feat on Saturday night against Mahoning Valley.
Another score in the seventh for the Cutters began when Herbert Iser doubled off the wall in left off his former college teammate at Dallas Baptist, M.D. Johnson. Iser just missed socking his third home run of the season. He advanced on an infield single for Torres and then scored on a ground out by Holmes for a 6-0 advantage.
The Cutters then put the game away with a big five-run frame in the eighth sending 10 batters to the plate. Simmons walked and Rott singled to left. Fassnacht's base-hit to left brought in Simmons and a couple batters later Nicolas Torres reached on a throwing error that allowed Rott to come in with eighth run. 
After Stott walked to load the bases, it was Holmes who was ready to take advantage with a smash into the corner in left that cleared the bases thus boosting the margin to 11-0. 
Batavia pushed across four runs against Junior Tejada in the ninth including a two-run home run for Albert Guaimaro (1st) and an RBI infield single by J.D. Orr. Alejandro Made came out of the pen to strike out Dalvy Rosario to finish the game. 
The Crosscutters have five home games remaining in 2019 beginning Wednesday at 7:05 p.m. against the Auburn Doubledays with RHP Leonel Aponte the probable starter for the Cutters.

Cutters Carvings:
- Jake Holmes is 12-for-28 (.429) with seven RBI in his last seven games with four multi-hit games that includes a pair of three-hit games. 
- The Cutters are 19-13 in the second half of the season after going 10-27 in the first half.
- The Cutters scored 10 or more runs in a game for the second and third times this season in the two wins at Batavia while allowing double digits in a 10-0 loss in the middle game of the series on Monday.
- Williamsport has six games left in the regular season including five at home.
- The Crosscutters were 4-2 at Dwyer Stadium this year with three of those wins coming by seven-run margins by scores of 11-4, 10-3 and 7-0.
- Batavia won the season series over the Cutters 7-5 by going 5-1 at BB&T Ballpark.