The Oneonta Tigers allowed 12 hits, walked six, threw four wild pitches and balked twice during a 9-4 New York-Penn League loss at State College on Tuesday.
Oneonta's lead in the Stedler Division dropped to a half-game over the second-place Lowell Spinners (27-23), whose game Tuesday at Jamestown was rained out.
The Tigers (27-22), who play the second part of their three-game series at State College at 7:05 tonight, have lost seven of their last nine games.
Through four innings Tuesday, Oneonta held a 4-0 lead. The Tigers scored all of their runs in the fourth inning off winning pitcher Tyler Cox (6-2), who struck out eight, walked none and allowed six hits over six innings.
Michael Rockett led off with a double to right and scored on Rawley Bishop's double to left. Cox then hit John Murrian with a pitch. Alexis Espinoza popped to short and Wade Gaynor grounded into a 6-4 force out to leave runners at first and third. Matthew Mansilla followed with a two-run double to left. Carmelo Jaime made it 4-0 on an RBI single to center.
The Spikes answered with four runs in the fifth off O-Tigers starter Jose Diaz. Justin Byler led off with a double to left. He went to third on a one-out single by Butch Biela, and both runners scored on a Craig Parry's double to left. Brock Holt then doubled to center to make it 4-3, and Evan Chambers tied it with a single to left.
State College scored twice off losing pitcher Jose Ortega (1-2) in the sixth. Andy Vasquez walked to lead off and stole second. After Ortega struck out Biela and Parry, Holt homered to center to make it 6-4.
The Spikes scored again in the seventh off Wade Kapteyn. Back-to-back, one-out singles by Aaron Baker and David Rubinstein left runners on first and second. Kapteyn then threw two wild pitches with Byler hitting, the latter scoring Baker to make it 7-4.
More pitching mistakes helped State College to two runs in the eighth. Parry led off with a double to right and went to third on a wild pitch by Mike LaLuna. Parry scored on a sacrifice fly to right by Holt, who finished 2-for-4 with four RBIs. Ty Summerlin then singled to left. After Evan Chambers popped out to first, Summerlin advanced to third on back-to-back balks by LaLuna and scored on a wild pitch.
Bishop and Gaynor had two hits apiece for Oneonta, which struck out 11 times. Three of those came against reliever Victor Black, who allowed one hit and walked none over three scoreless innings to earn his first save.
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