NILES — The Scrappers on Sunday giveth, then they quickly took it away.

After surrendering a 3-1 lead with two outs in the top of the ninth inning, the Scrappers pushed across a run with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, resulting in a 4-3 home victory over Frederick.

The win pushes the Scrappers over the .500 mark (13-12) while Frederick falls to 10-17.

Trailing 3-1 entering the ninth, Frederick scored a pair of runs off of Scrappers reliever JJ Tylicki. The Keys loaded the bases with a pair of one-out singles and a two-out walk. Jose Silva then doubled home a pair of runs to send the game to the bottom of the ninth tied at 3-3.

Chase Heath singled with one out in the bottom of the ninth. Then with two outs, Daniel Stewart doubled, knocking in the winning run. Stewart owns a batting average of .440.

Frederick scored the game’s first run in the third on a sacrifice fly. It proved to be the only run surrendered by Scrappers starter Garrett Peters, who worked six innings, giving up just three hits while recording six strikeouts.

The Scrappers took a 2-1 lead in the fifth. Khi Holiday singled to lead off the inning. Holiday stole second and then came around to score on a throwing error. One out later, Max Hartman belted his first home run of the season to give the Scrappers the lead.

The Scrappers tacked on a run in the seventh. Trey Fenderson singled, stole second and third and scored on a Luka Danos groundout.

The Keys had a golden opportunity to score in the seventh when a pair of singles and a hit batter loaded the bases with no outs. However, reliever Noah Czajkowski retired the next three batters without giving up a run.

The Scrappers return to Eastwood Field on Tuesday for the start of a three-game series against Williamsport.

WILSON GETS INTO COACHING

It’s an hour before the first pitch, and Frederick Keys first-year manager Preston Wilson is behind the batting cage at Eastwood Field, bat in hand, demonstrating a swing to several of his players.

Moments later he heads toward the dugout, puts his arm around another player and provides instruction and advice.

“One thing I quickly learned is that you get much more attached to these kids than you ever imagined,” Wilson said. “You spend a lot of hours trying to help them succeed, trying to help them learn the game because hopefully they all want to play at the professional level.

“Now, they have to be receptive to the advice. I can talk all I want but if they’re not willing to listen, it’s not doing any of us any good. Fortunately, most of these young men want to learn, they want to listen and are very coachable. They know we’ve been there.”

Wilson spent Saturday and Sunday at Eastwood Field, guiding the Keys in their two-game series against the Mahoning Valley Scrappers.

Indeed, Wilson has “been there.” In fact, he had a 10-year career in the Major Leagues as an outfielder. He was a league MVP and owns a World Series ring.

Drafted in the first round of the 1992 MLB Draft by the New York Mets after being named Baseball America’s High School Player of the Year, Wilson made his Major League debut with the Mets in 1998 before being traded to the Marlins later that year.

Wilson was named an All-Star in 2003 while playing for the Colorado Rockies, posting a career-high .282 batting average and leading the National League with 141 RBI. Over the course of his career (1998-2007) Wilson played in 1,108 games across six different teams. He was part of the 2006 St. Louis Cardinals’ World Series championship team.

Wilson has since spent several years as an analyst for Fox Sports coverage of the Miami Marlins. He also served as a field reporter before joining the Houston Astros television network in the same capacity beginning in 2018.

This year marks Wilson’s introduction into the world of coaching.

“I always thought about coaching in the past, but the timing wasn’t right,” Wilson said. “I was asked to come here a couple of years ago as a hitting coach, but I had too many other things going on. When the MLB Draft League reached out to me earlier this year, I just knew it was a great opportunity and the time was right.”

When asked to reflect on his playing career, Wilson unsurprisingly begins with his memories of the ’06 season spent in St. Louis.

“I mean, winning a World Series is the dream of every kid who ever picks up a baseball bat,” Wilson said. “There is something magical about working with a group of guys who share a common goal, while having a level of professionalism where nobody is wondering if the work is going to get done. It was always just a matter of how we’ll get it done.

“The attention to detail on that team was off the charts. Then to see it all come to fruition was something else. We were pretty banged up when I got to that team in the middle of the season. But everyone got healthy and we got on a roll. When the playoffs came around, we just all knew that we were in the midst of something special.”

While the game has evolved since Wilson retired 18 years ago, he insists that the sport at its core is no different than it was even before his playing days.

“I like the pitch clock, I think it takes us back to the days when pitchers and hitters actually worked at this pace,” Wilson said. “This game is still all about catching, throwing strikes and not giving away outs.

“People always talk about analytics. We’ve always had analytics, it’s just that they were not expressed the way they are today. The language has always been there. The method of adjusting the infielders a certain way, or adjusting a hitting approach based on the pitcher, that always existed. We just never called it analytics.”

While Wilson is striving to help his players reach the next level, he also has his sights set on moving up the coaching ladder.

“We’ll see what happens, but this has been a rewarding experience and I would love to keep coaching or managing in some capacity,” Wilson said.