By Justin Lada
AUBURN, N.Y. — There’s an old saying: you can’t keep a good Salt Cat down.
Okay, that’s not really a saying, but it was true on Monday night as the Syracuse Salt Cats rallied back from a 7-0 deficit to take sole possession of fourth place in the New York Collegiate Baseball League’s Eastern Division thanks to an 11-7 victory over the Geneva Red Wings.
Things got started with a bang at Falcon Park, when Maso Cotton (Virginia State) allowed a three-run home run to Phil Rosenblum in the first inning and then made a throwing error for what would have been the final out of the inning. Matt Mayo capitalized on it for the Red Wings and doubled in Grant Heyman to make 4-0 Geneva before the Salt Cats could even swing a bat.
For the first three innings the Salt Cats swung the bats, but didn’t do much to the ball or Geneva starting pitcher, Joe Bocchino. They managed just three base runners in three innings off of Bocchino and never more than one at a time.
Finally around the fourth inning the Salt Cats found themselves down 7-0 and somehow rattled Bocchino.
Dan Fiorito (Manhantanville) singled to start the inning and then Kevin Bailey (Alvernia University) got things opened up with a double off the wall in left. Andrew Medeiros (Westfield State) finally put the Salt Cats on the board with a two run single, scoring Fiorito and Bailey.
Connor Thompson (Mansfield University) singled and would later score with Medeiros on a pair of sac fly’s by Tyler Kirwan (UMass-Boston) and Corbin Gapski (Fairleigh Dickinson), making it 7-4 after the fourth.
Meanwhile while the Salt Cats were just starting to wake up the bats, the teams bullpen suddenly became a huge buzz kill for the Red Wings offense.
Cotton exited after 3.2 innings of work, his shortest outing of the season. After the rough first inning, Cotton would allow three more runs on five hits, but wasn’t helped much by his difference. His final line had him allowing nine hits, seven runs (five earned), walking one and not recording a strike out.
Matt Larangera (Rutgers-Newark) had indisputably his best outing of the season, stranding a pair of runners with one pitch in the fourth inning. He got the win, pitching 2.2 hitless innings.
In fact, the Red Wings didn’t find the bases with a hit off the bullpen. Roberto Morales (Walsh University) pitched 1.2 perfect innings, fanning two. Bo Watson (Onondaga CC/St. Bonaventure) struck out two and walked two in the ninth.
While the Salt Cats bullpen was throwing up zeros, the offenses clawed back and outscored the Red Wings 10-0 over the fourth, five and sixth innings.
Syracuse began to put better at bats together, working a few works and reaching on errors until Nick Carlson (University of Rochester) delivered an RBI single in the fifth inning. Carlson came around to score in the sixth.
Eddie Charles (Oswego State) led the sixth off with a double and scored on a ground out. Ethan Braddock (St. Lawrence) single after Charles. Bailey ground out, scoring Charles and Medeiros delivered a sac fly, putting the game out of reach. Charles scored on a sac fly in the ninth, making it 11-7.
The Salt Cats improved to 8-14 and take over fourth place by .10 points in the standings. They will take on the Sherrill Silversmiths at 5pm from Rockwell Park on the campus of Le Moyne College.
Sean Gavin makes his first start of the year, after four relief appearances.
Follow the Salt Cats on twitter @SyrSaltCats for in game updates. Find us on Facebook to see cool photos and other cool notes.
Geneva RW 4 0 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 – 7 9 3
SYR Salt Cats 0 0 0 4 3 3 0 1 x – 11 11 2
2B–M.Mayo (1), E.Charles (6), K.Bailey (4). HR–P.Rosenblum (5).
RBI–P.Rosenblum 3 (10), G.Heyman 2 (2), M.Mayo (1), D.Saluga (3),
K.Bailey 3 (11), A.Mederios 3 (16), N.Carlson (6), T.Kirwan (1), C.Gapski
(1). HP–P.Rosenblum (1), G.Heyman (1), M.Mayo (1). SF–K.Bailey (2),
A.Mederios (2), T.Kirwan (1), C.Gapski (1). SH–E.Charles (0).
SB–L.Stimpson (12), B.Morton (9). E–M.Mayo 2 (2), B.Hauser (7), T.Kirwan
(2), M.Cotton (1).
LOB–Geneva RW 12, SYR Salt Cats 6.
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