JAMESTOWN, N.Y. - It wasn't the season the Jamestown Jammers were hoping for, but the locals certainly ended with a flourish.
The Jammers (35-40) finished the 2012 New York-Penn Baseball League season with a doubleheader sweep of the Batavia Muckdogs (1-0 1st game, 3-2 2nd game) Wednesday at Diethrick Park, wrapping up the campaign with four straight victories and by winning six of seven overall.
Jamestown also managed to play spoiler on the final day of the league season, denying Batavia a NYPL wild card spot with the sweep.
The first seven-inning contest of the afternoon was a makeup of Tuesday's rained out contest. Originally planned to be played in Batavia, Jamestown took advantage of its home field, scoring the game's only run in the bottom of the sixth inning.
Cody Keefer led off the sixth with a double and scored on Sharif Othman's single to right. Jesus Solorzano also tried to score on the play, but he was gunned down at the plate. That ultimately didn't matter, however, as three Jammers pitchers combined on a three-hit shutout.
Drew Steckenrider pitched the first four innings, allowing two hits, but it was Patrick Merkling who earned his first win by pitching the fifth and sixth innings. Jheyson Manzueta pitched the seventh for his third save.
Fact Box
Game 1
Batavia 000 000 0 - 0 3 1
Jamestown 000 001 x - 1 5 0
2b-Jesus Solorzano (J), Cody Keefer (J). WP-Patrick Merkling. LP-Corey Baker. Save-Jheyson Manzueta.
---
Game 2
Batavia 010 001 0 - 2 6 2
Jamestown 300 000 x - 3 4 1
HR-Jacob Wilson (B). WP-Beau Wright. LP-Tim Cooney. Save-Frankie Reed.
In the nightcap, the Jammers did all of their offensive damage in the first inning before holding on for the win. The hosts pushed three runs across the dish in the first as Yefri Perez led off with a walk and scored after back-to-back singles from Keefer and Solorzano.
Keefer scored the second run of the inning on an RBI groundout from Felix Munoz and Matt Juengel scored the third on a Muckdogs wild pitch.
Batavia scored one run in the second off starter Sean Donatello and added a second in the sixth on Jacob Wilson's leadoff homer. That was as close as the Muckdogs would get as Frankie Reed slammed the door in the seventh for his third save of the year.
Jamestown earned two wins despite having just nine hits on the night. Keefer and Solorzano had three hits each and Rosa, Othman and Juengel had one each.