By Paul Casey Gotham
WILLIAMSVILLE – Ben Gielow (Webster, NY/Webster-Schroeder) came home with the eventual game winner as the Monroe Community College Tribunes took the night cap of a NJCAA double-header at Erie Community College, 2-1.
Gielow led the fifth inning with an opposite-field single to right. Bobby Frantz (Webster, NY/Webster-Thomas) moved the runner with a sacrifice bunt. Gielow went to third on a ground ball by Steve Renaud (Ottawa, ONT./St. Joseph’s) and scored on a passed ball.
Grant Nadeau (Cicero, NY/Cicero-N.Syracuse) pitched five-plus innings for his second win of the season. After surrendering a single to the first batter he faced, the left-hander retired the next seven.
Nadeau worked out of a two-on-nobody-out jam in the fourth by inducing a 6-4-3 double play. The sophomore set down the side in order on three ground balls in the fifth before allowing the first two batters to reach in the sixth.
“It goes to show you that when you throw strikes, you win games,” Tribune skipper Mike Kelly commented. “Grant pitched to contact and let his defense do their job. We’ll win one-run games that way.”
Kevin Johnson (Webster, NY/Webster-Thomas) put out the fire getting an inning-ending bases-loaded double play. Luis Diaz (Geneva, NY/Geneva), making a switch from third to second when Johnson went to the mound, adjusted well to his new surroundings corralling the first ball hit to him – a one-hopper that he dug out of the ground to start the 4-6-3 rally stopper.
Johnson worked the seventh for his sixth save of the campaign.
The Tribs jumped to an early lead. Renaud worked a full-count base-on-balls to start the game. Johnson singled to center before Diaz pushed the runners with a sacrifice bunt. Adam Urschel (Clarence,NY/Clarence) plated Renaud with a single through the left side of the infield.
“We did what we were supposed to offensively and on the mound,” Kelly added.
MCC fell in the opener 5-4. Gielow and Diaz keyed a two-run rally as the Tribunes tied the game in the fifth at 4-4. Gielow led the frame with a seeing-eye single up the middle. Two outs later, Diaz tripled off the fence in left center. After Urschel worked a four-pitch walk, Cody Mombourquette (Ottawa, ONT/Colonel by St. Matthews) blooped a single into right center that was lost in the sun allowing Diaz to tie the score.
But the lead would not last as ECC scored in the bottom of the stanza on a double steal.
“If you don’t play perfect baseball, you’ll allow teams to capitalize,” Kelly explained.
Cody Petre (Letchworth, NY/Letchworth) worked an inning and two-thirds of relief fanning two of the five batters he retired.
Diaz finished the afternoon going 3-5 with a double, triple, 2 RBI, a run scored, a walk and a stolen base.
Mombourquette went 3-5 with 2 RBI.
Gielow, Johnson and Urschel rapped a pair of hits each.
MCC improves to 16-6 after the split. The teams face each other again on Sunday at the University of Rochester. First pitch is scheduled for noon.
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