State College is near the bottom of the New York-Penn League in home runs, but it was the long ball that won the game for the Spikes on Saturday night against the Jamestown Jammers at Diethrick Park.
Dilson Herrara and D.J. Crumlich smacked home runs to lead the Spikes over the Jammers, 3-2, in the Pinckney Division of the New York-Penn League.
Herrera hit his first home run of the season with two outs in the eighth inning off Sean Donatello (1-2) for the winning margin. Three innings earlier, Crumlich had given the visitors a 2-1 edge with his second home run of the season.
After Herrera hit his decisive homer, the Jammers tried to come back in the bottom of the eighth when Yefri Perez doubled, but Clario Perez retired Cody Keefer and Jesus Solorzano to raise his record to 1-3.
The Jammers were easily disposed of in the ninth as Kyle Haynes fanned Viosergy Rosa, Pedro Mendoza and Felix Munoz to gain his eighth save.
Jamestown got its runs in the fourth and fifth innings. Keefer walked and Solorzano, back in the lineup after missing several games, doubled followed by Rosa delivering Keefer with an infield out in the fourth to tie it up at 1-1.
With two outs in the fifth, Juancito Martinez tripled and came home on Perez's double to again tie the game, 2-2.
State College scored the first run in the opening inning as singles by Chris Diaz, Crumlich and Jesus Vasquez produced the run.
The loss evened the series at 2-2 and left the Jammers with a 31-39 record while State College is 33-39 in the battle for third place in Pinckney Division.
Day baseball is on tap the next two days as the Jammers meet Mahoning Valley at 4:05 p.m. today and follow that up with 1:05 p.m. game on Labor Day at Diethrick Park.
After that the Jammers have two games with Batavia on Tuesday at Dwyer Stadium and at home on Wednesday. The home game Wednesday is at 6 p.m.
The games with Batavia are important because the Muckdogs, the Auburn Doubledays and the Brooklyn Cyclones are separated by only one game in the standings. Only two of those teams make the playoffs.
Auburn has a 44-28 record and Batavia is second with a 43-29 record in the Pinckney Division. Brooklyn, meanwhile, is second in the McNamara Division and has the best wild-card record right now at 44-28.