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<p>Mason Williams&#8217; season has been less than ideal.</p><p>He started the year on the New York Yankees&#8217; 40-man roster, was called up from the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders twice, once in May and another in June, only to get designated for assignment on June 29 before going unclaimed and being outrighted back to Triple-A.</p><p>But none of that matters now. It&#8217;s playoff time and Williams is red hot.</p><p>The electric center fielder sported a .382 batting average in his last 10 games heading into Saturday&#8217;s Game 3 tilt of the Governors&#8217; Cup first round against the Lehigh Valley IronPigs.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s just getting a little more consistent with his lower-half mechanics,&#8221; RailRiders hitting coach P.J. Piliterre said. &#8220;He&#8217;s just doing a nice job of making some adjustments in pre-game and in the cage and during (batting practice) and he&#8217;s been able to take it to the game a lot easier now. Obviously very capable of performing at that level. Obviously a Major League-caliber player with a lot of ability.</p><p>&#8220;Really encouraged to see him doing that to finish the season. Could be easy sometimes when you&#8217;re struggling a little bit to kind of just go through the motions the last month, but to his credit, he continued to work, wanted to get better, still had the urgency. He&#8217;s reaping the rewards right now.&#8221;</p><p>Williams&#8217; approach of late has been simple. Just get on base and it doesn&#8217;t matter how.</p><p>Piliterre sees Williams as an on-base guy. So for him, he just wants to see the talented outfielder find a way to get on base twice a game, which was exactly what he did in Friday&#8217;s win. The 25-year-old outfield got on base three times in the 4-2 win, and scored all three times.</p><p>Because once Williams gets on-base he&#8217;s hard to put away.</p><p>&#8220;Whether he gets a hit, a walk or he gets on by an error. We need him on base because he can steal bags,&#8221; RailRiders manager Al Pedrique said. &#8220;We have (Donovan) Solano hitting second that he can hit a ball behind Mason to get him to third base.</p><p>Williams said the key to his recent success has been staying patient.</p><p>While he&#8217;s had to overcome some struggles earlier this season, he&#8217;s stuck to his grind and stay positive throughout. It&#8217;s paid off with Williams taking hold of the lead-off spot in the batting order.</p><p>If Friday night&#8217;s win is a sign of what&#8217;s to come, Williams could be an integral part to the RailRiders&#8217; postseason run.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;m just trying to be patient and be able to get my swing off at the pitch I&#8217;m looking for. Kind of getting in good counts to get success like that,&#8221; Williams said. &#8220;Yeah, I definitely had a tough year this year, but at the end of the day I still have to come out here and compete. I still have to compete and play my game and help the team win still.&#8221;</p><p>With his strong performance over the last month-plus, Williams can take plenty of confidence into the offseason. But he&#8217;s ready to continue to put off the offseason for as long as possible.</p><p>There&#8217;s still work to do.</p><p>&#8220;I feel good about going into the offseason, but I&#8217;m not really thinking about the offseason right now,&#8221; Williams said. &#8220;I&#8217;ve been playing well as of late, so I just want to keep it rolling in the playoffs.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Scranton/Wilkes-Barre outfielder Mason Williams has been an offensive force for the RailRiders lately. He&#8217;s sporting an .382 batting average in his last 10 games prior to Saturday&#8217;s tilt. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/web1_TTL041517RailRiders_4_CMYK201777191544567.jpg</photo0><caption0>Scranton/Wilkes-Barre outfielder Mason Williams has been an offensive force for the RailRiders lately. He&#8217;s sporting an .382 batting average in his last 10 games prior to Saturday&#8217;s tilt. </caption0><photoCredit0>Bill Tarutis file photo | For Times Leader </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By DJ Eberle</p><p>djeberle@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach DJ Eberle at 570-991-6398 or on Twitter @ByDJEberle</p></shirttailMeta></div>

RailRiders Weekend Feature: Outfielder Mason Williams is red-hot just in time