LORAIN — A day after scoring 17 runs, the Ironmen’s bats went cold against the West Virginia Miners in a 10-1 loss at The Pipe Yard.

Control issues plagued Ironmen starter Michael Clarke (0-2) in the second inning. The southpaw walked in two runs, hit another batter with the bases loaded and allowed seven runs.

Miners designated hitter Rhett Stafford, the ninth batter of the inning, capped off the rally with a three-run double down the left field line.

Clarke did not pitch during the college season, spending the year at North Carolina State as a red-shirt.

“(Clarke) was a little wild and slowed down the play of the game,” Ironmen manager Joe Rhomberg said. “I don’t know if that affected how the other players played, but that’s how the game goes. We’ve got a game tomorrow and hope we can do better.”

Two errors prolonged the inning: first baseman Nate Tomaszewski mishandled a hard line drive and catcher Connor Weir, an Amherst graduate, dropped a throw to the plate after getting bumped by a base runner.

Prospect League rules state a runner can’t make contact with a fielder unless in the process of sliding.

Rhomberg spent several minutes discussing the play with the umpires.

“I’m new to this league, but I plan on talking to the head umpire or the commissioner sometime soon,” Rhomberg said. “We should have been able to bounce back from that, but we didn’t.”

Outside of the second inning, Clarke retired 13 of the 14 batters he faced. He went five innings, striking out three and walking three.

West Virginia starter Zack Smith (1-1) cruised through most of his six innings. The left-hander scattered six hits, struck out two, walked two and hit two batters.

Getting runners on base wasn’t too much of a problem for the Ironmen. The first two batters of the game reached, but the first inning ended on a 6-4-3 double play by Zak Blair.

James DiBiasio also grounded into a double play to end the third inning.

With runners on the corners and two outs in the fourth inning, Weir hit a hard line drive right at the shortstop for the third out.

On Tuesday night, the Ironmen recorded a 17-2 win over the Miners (4-2).

“Yesterday we swung the bats well — but that’s the game of baseball,” Rhomberg said. “They had a good pitcher on the mound, and we got to him. Today their lefty came out throwing hard and pitched a good game.”

Blair scored the first run for the Ironmen in the sixth inning. Blair led by drawing a walk. He went to second after a single by Mike Grieco, stole third and scored on a sacrifice fly to left by Weir.

Right fielder Sam Alvis, who recorded zero at bats as a pitcher this season at Louisiana Tech, reached base three times with two doubled and a walk.

“We got a lot of big hits — doubles and extra base hit — but tonight it didn’t happen,” Rhomberg said. “It’s only been five games. (Hitting coach) Joe Charboneau has been working hard with the team, and we will see how they respond to the loss.”

Rhett and Gray Stafford, brothers who play college ball at Marshall, each had two hits and a double for the Miners.

Rhett Stafford was drafted by the Oakland A’s in the 22nd round of this week’s draft.

The Ironmen travel to play the Slippery Rock Sliders at 7:05 p.m. tonight. They will host the Sliders in their next home game at 6:35 p.m. on Saturday.

Written by Cory Schuett