Black Bears' bats fall silent, can't support Danny Beddes in loss

The West Virginia Black Bears managed four hits in a 5-1 loss at Mahoning Valley in short-season A New York-Penn League action on Sunday.

Starting pitcher Danny Beddes (it seems to be pronounced like "Bettis," so go with me) chewed up the tough yards early on, scattering four hits over his first five innings before running into trouble in the sixth. On a big third down With the bases loaded, West Virginia manager Bill Cowher Wyatt Toregas went to Amos Zereoue Brandon Bingel, who fumbled the game away issued two bases-loaded walks and gave up a two-run single, as the Browns Scrappers scored all their points runs in the quarter inning.

Beddes, the first 15th-round pick out of Notre Dame Utah Valley, had been racking up the yardage on a run of nice starts. His seven hits allowed were a season high, and he hadn't given up as many as four runs in each his last seven starts.

The Black Bears got their run in the third when second baseman Nick King, signed this summer out of the Frontier League, got to second on an error and Sandy Santos ripped a clean single back through the box to score him. Santos had second base stolen, but may have come off the bag and was called out by the home-plate umpire.

About that: As the Mahoning Valley starter warmed up for the first inning, one of his pitches bounced and injured the original home-plate umpire (I didn't see where). The New York-Penn League uses just two umpires, so, after a delay, the original base umpire emerged in full gear and ran the whole show from behind the plate.

Will Craig, who homered off Brady Aiken Saturday night, went 0-for-3 with a walk. Ty Moore had two of the Black Bears' hits.

Also, I found a couple pay phones around the ballpark, which may have been the most exciting part of my day.