By Paul Casey Gotham
GENEVA, N.Y. — It’s not in the losing as much as it is in the getting up after defeat. After dropping five consecutive and falling to .500 at 12 wins and 12 losses, the Adirondack Trail Blazers got up off the canvas. Two strong pitching performances later have the Trail Blazers streaking in the opposite direction.
Mike Muglia (East Sroudsburg U) scattered three hits and one run over six complete as the Trail Blazers defeated the Geneva Red Wings, 6-2 in New York Collegiate Baseball League action at McDonough Park, Sunday afternoon.
Muglia struck out four and walked none for his first win of the season.
“He’s been great all year,” Adirondack coach Ryne Foster said of his starter. “He doesn’t throw hard. He throws zeroes up. Everything he throws, moves. It helped us out.”
Muglia retired ten straight between the third and sixth innings.
“Anytime you can get in summer ball and guys can throw four or five innings and hold a team to two runs or less, you hope the bats can come through and score more than that,” Foster continued.
Adirondack’s offense took advantage of four Geneva errors to score five unearned runs in the first two innings. Numbers one and two in the Trail Blazer order, Eric Baker (Rogers St.) and Kenny May (Lincoln U), paced the offense with a combined six hits and five runs scored.
“Those guys go one, two,” Foster said of Baker and May. “Everybody is starting to click a little bit. It makes baseball a lot more fun.”
Baker fought off a full count breaking ball and slapped a single into center field to start the game. May’s ground ball handcuffed Geneva second baseman, Jesse Puscheck (Canisius), and the Trail Blazer had runners on first and second.
Chase Matheson (McHenry County Coll.) dropped a sacrifice bunt between Geneva pitcher Joe Bocchino (Ave Maria) and third baseman, Paul Cotler (Penn). Cotler’s throw was wide of the bag, Baker scored while May and Matheson moved to second and third. May scored on a passed ball, and Kevin Hix (Youngstown St.) plated Matheson with a base hit through the right side of the infield.
Adirondack added two more in the second.
Dezmon Nunn (Three Rivers CC) beat out a bunt for lead single. Baker and May loaded the bases with two more hits.
Bocchino induced a come-backer and forced out Nunn at home, but Joe Blair’s (Mid-Continent U) throw to first went down the line allowing Baker and May to score.
May provided some insurance with a one-out solo shot over the fence in right-center field.
“Kenny went through a little rough patch at the beginning of the year,” Foster explained. “He’s come on. He’s been stroking it ever since we had a double-header with the (Syracuse) Salt Cats a couple weeks back.”
Baker went three-for-five on the afternoon. The The Muskegee, OH resident ranks fifth in the NYCBL with a batting average of .437. At the same time his six home runs are one off the pace.
“He hit leadoff all year for Rogers St.,” Foster explained. “I moved him into the middle for a little bit to drive in a couple more runs. Then we started slowing down. I said I’m just going to put him back up at the beginning and try to give us a spark. He’s done nothing but get on base. It’s nice have that at the front of the lineup.”
Corbin Stykemain (Niagara) struck out two in a scoreless seventh.
John Clark (Georgia Coll & St. U) notched his second save with a shutout ninth.
Geneva scored single runs in the first and eighth.
Puschek reached when he was hit by a pitch with two outs in the first. Phil Rosenblum (Villanova) followed with a bloop double that landed just inside fair territory down the right field line and bounded to wall in foul ground. Puschek came around to score from first.
Robby Enslen (Oakland) led the eight with a base on balls from Adirondack reliever, Sean Badger (Mohawk Valley CC) . He moved to second on a wild pitch and to third on a ground out. Enslen came home on the second wild pitch of the frame.
Bocchino took the tough-luck loss. The right-hander allowed one earned run over six innings of work.
Matt Hockenberry (Temple) tossed three shutout innings of relief. Hockenberry is 2-0 on the season. He has struck out 25 and walked nine in 23-plus innings of work.
“Our pitchers did really well,” Geneva coach Dave Herbst said. “We are very pleased with them. We just got to start making our own breaks. We got to start making things happen.”
With a record of 10 wins and 15 losses, the Red Wings sit in fourth place in the NYCBL Eastern Division.
“I think we’re really going to have a good second half,” said Herbst referring to his team’s remaining games.
Enslen, who signed with the club in late June, had a hit, a walk and a run scored.
“He’s a big kid. He’s got a big swing. He’s going to learn a lot this summer.
Geneva threatened in the ninth. Recent signee, Grant Heyman (Miami) and Dave Saluga (Youngstown) connected on back-to-back one-out singles. But the runners were left stranded.
Heyman was selected in the 11th round of the 2012 MLB Draft by the Toronto Blue Jays. The Pittsford, NY native is the second player able to take advantage of a new rule granting eligibility to high school players chosen in the MLB Draft.
In order to be eligible for participation in the NYCBL, a student-athlete must have played one college season and have one season of eligibility remaining.
Chris Bostick was the first player granted eligibility under the amendment to league rules. Bostick played for the Webster Yankees in 2011. The Aquinas Institute graduate was taken by the Oakland A’s in the 44th round of the 2011 MLB Draft. Bostick currently plays with the Vermont Lake Monsters of the Class A New York-Penn League.
Geneva travels to Sherrill, Monday for a 5 p.m. first pitch at Noyes Park. Zachary Lander (SUNY Brockport) gets the start for Geneva. Oliver Pratt (Young Harris) gets on the bump for the Smitties.
Adirondack and the Syracuse Jr. Chiefs meet at Alliance Bank Stadium. Charles Parsons (Mohawk Valley CC) goes for the Trail Blazers. Peter Doggett (Misericordia) gets the ball for the first-place Jr. Chiefs.
Leave a Reply