Records are meant to be chased and broken. Some stand the test of time, and others come down every week.
Already into this short season, some members of the State College Spikes have been chasing history, and re-writing the record books.
For the beginning of this young season, much of the buzz was around first baseman Casey Grayson, as he was quickly becoming the most consistent and reliable offensive threat for the Spikes. Through his first 23 games of the season, Grayson reached base every game. During that streak, Grayson was hitting .398 with an OBP of .472. He also went 14 straight games with a hit, chasing the team record of 21 games.
“It takes a bit of luck as well as putting the ball in play,” said Grayson of his streak. “Some stuff goes your way and that’s the difference between going .400 and .300.”
Grayson did not break the on base streak record, coming up 3 games short of Rowan Wick’s record set a year ago, after Grayson was held hitless on July 16 in West Virginia. But he did not let it bother him, as the next day when the team returned to State College, he went 1-for-4 with an RBI in a win over the Batavia Muckdogs. The streak added some excitement to the early season and Grayson got plenty of razzing from his teammates in the dugout every time he extended his streak.
“Its fun,” he said. “It keeps everyone loose.”
There was plenty of fun in the dugout on July 18, when another record was being etched into the team’s record books. Right-handed pitcher Juan Perez threw a gem against Batavia, when he struck out 10 Muckdogs, tying a team record for most strikeouts in a single outing. Will Anderson and Fernando Baez also hold the record.
“Perez had his best stuff. Best pitching performance of the year,” said manager Johnny Rodriguez after the game. He had all three of his pitches working for him. His fastball was electric, consistently hitting 92-94 on the gun. His change-up came in looking like a slow fast ball until it fell off the table in the last 6 feet, and his curveball was hard and cutting down and in on right handed batters. The mix of pitches had hitters off balance and, they couldn’t sit on one pitch the entire night. All 10 of Perez’s strikeouts were swinging.
Jesse Jenner caught the game and he talked about the effective mix from Perez.
“He had confidence in all of his pitches and he threw them with conviction tonight,” praised Jenner. Jenner and Perez worked well with each other to call an effective game that completely shut down the weak Batavia line up.
“It was a pleasure to catch for him tonight,” said Jenner.
The season is still young and the Spikes seem to finally be hitting their groove and playing up to their potential. Keep an eye out for more records to start falling this summer.
Series Recap:
The Spikes took their fifth out of 6 straight series when they took on the Batavia Muckdogs this weekend. Friday night started out the series with an incredible performance from Juan Perez who had 10 strike outs. Cole Lankford contributed from the dish with a team record 3 doubles and 5 RBIs to win 8-0.
After a tough loss on Saturday night, the Spikes came back and took the rubber match in walk off fashion. After blowing a 5-3 lead in the ninth inning, the Spikes had some great at-bats including one by Thomas Spitz to draw a walk and by Mike Pritchard for an infield single. The big hit however came from short stop Lebaldo Pina as he crushed an outside pitch to right field, plating Josh Swirchak for the 6-5 win. The Spikes return home next week when they face Vermont Lake Mosters and the Lowell Spinners.
Connor Greeley is a Centre County Gazette intern who covers the State College Spikes. Email him at correspondent@centrecountygazette.com.
