Spikes End Record Setting Season With 4-3 Win

UNIVERSITY PARK – The State College Spikes closed out their 2007 season with a 4-3 win over the Mahoning Valley Scrappers on Friday evening. The team finished the season with a 36-39 record thanks to a four-game winning streak to end the year. The team also saw unsurpassed success in the stands, as 151,394 fans walked through the gates of Medlar Field at Lubrano Park during the team’s second season, an increase of nearly 13,000 fans from the inaugural campaign.

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NY Times: A Pirates Farmhand Has the Skinny on Chamberlain

By JACK CURRY

Published: September 9, 2007

Every time Joba Chamberlain pitches for the Yankees, John Fitzpatrick, a Class A first baseman in the Pittsburgh Pirates’ organization, is reminded of his brief, brilliant history against him. 

“Hey, Fitzy, he still hasn’t given up a run,” Fitzpatrick’s teammates on the State College (Pa.) Spikes tell him.

Of course, Fitzpatrick knows that. Last year in college, he did something that no major league hitter has been able to do this season. He hit a home run off Chamberlain.

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Spikes end season with win

By Guy Cipriano – gciprian@centredaily.com

 UNIVERSITY PARK–Some started playing in January on teams that trained rigorously to qualify for the College World Series. Another batch started this season in March learning the game from Pittsburgh Pirates instructors in the sweltering Florida heat.

The groups converged in June.

Now, many players who became known as State College Spikes are stuck in a predicament only baseball can provide.

They have spent months away from their friends and families.

Yet returning to a normal life can be challenging after nights such as Friday.

The Spikes ended their second season by defeating Mahoning Valley 4-3 before 3,794 at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park. The victory was the team’s fourth straight.

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State College Spikes starting pitcher Nicolas Suero fires to the plate against the Mahoning Valley Scrappers on Friday, Sept. 7, 2007.

Scrappers end year with loss

By BILL ALBRIGHT

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Mahoning Valley Scrappers were hoping to finish the 2007 season in the same manner as they started it, with a win.

However, Friday night at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park, State College would have nothing to do with the plan as the Spikes won the final game of the season by a 4-3 score before a crowd of 3,794.

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