By Lori Chase
@LChase_RA
St. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. —
Make no mistake … this one was over early.
Taking advantage of Olean miscues to send 16 batters to the plate in the second inning, the Geneva Twins rang up 11 runs in the frame – just four of them earned – to overload the scoreboard and chase Oilers starter Brandon Nemeti out of the game early on their way to a 13-4 victory in New York Collegiate Baseball League action at Fred Handler Park on Monday afternoon.
“We came out swinging out the bats that second inning. We were just fortunate enough to get to Nemeti right there,” Geneva coach Kevin Whiteside said after watching his club capture the first of back-to-back games between the two teams. “Just one of them days, I guess.”
It was the shortest outing of the season and the first loss for Nemeti (4-1), the Lancaster native and Erie CC star, who lasted just one and two-thirds in his first appearance since pitching in last week’s NYCBL All-Star game.
After needing just six pitches to retire the side in the first inning, the wheels came off the Oilers’ bandwagon in the second. With a pair of errors, four walks and a hit batsman contributing to the damage, Geneva first baseman Dillon Hamlin (Seton Hall) singled twice and scored both times, designated hitter Chris Casto (Northwest Mississippi CC) doubled in a pair of runs and added another RBI on a bases-loaded walk, and second baseman Connor Lorenzo (Fredonia) capped off the onslaught with a two-run single before Rubin Medina came on in an emergency relief appearance to finally close the door.
“Not exactly how we wanted to come out and start our final 10 of the season,” Olean coach Bobby Bell said. “I think we gave them six or seven outs that inning – never good – and they capitalized. They did what they had to do. They know we’re a good team, we know they’re a good team, and every time we play those guys one of us explodes and capitalizes on a bad inning. Today it was them and not us.”
The Oilers got a run back against Geneva starter Justin Ratte (Flagler College) in the bottom half of the inning when Pat Welsh (Marist) scored on a single by Steve Pollakov (Rochester) and added two more on a homer to right by UB’s Thomas Richards in the fifth, but never mounted a serious comeback threat as the Twins cushioned their lead with runs in the sixth and eighth before Richards (2-4, 3 RBI) capped the scoring with an RBI single in Olean’s final at-bat.
Hamlin finished 3-for-5 to lead the Twins, with Davenport University’s Michael Allen (2-4, RBI) also collecting multiple hits and Stephen Joe (Copiah-Lincoln CC) adding three RBIs. Pollakov and Jake Kemmer (Clarion) each singled twice for the Oilers.
For Geneva (16-17), it was a chance to both get closer to .500 and open up more of a margin over fifth-place Wellsville (13-20), which lost at Hornell, 4-1, for the final playoff spot in the NYCBL West Division.
“Every win from here on out is big for us,” Whiteside said, “I think two games separate first from second, second from third, third from fourth, fourth from fifth. So every win from here on out is kind of like the seventh game of the World Series.
“Any time you come here and get a win … These guys (the Oilers) are one of the better teams in our league. They swing the bat really well. They’ve got some guys – 2, 3, 4 in their order – that can flat-out hit. It was just our day today. Ratte wasn’t sharp, but when we give him a 10-run cushion, you don’t have to be so sharp. But we’ve got these guys again tomorrow, so we’ve got to come back tomorrow at our place and get a better effort.”
Meanwhile, Bell and his Oilers (18-13) know they let an opportunity to stay close to division-leading Hornell (21-10) slip through their grasp. And with just three more home games left on the schedule, this one stings.
“It definitely does,” Bell said. “We want to make a good run here at the end of the season, especially because now with the rainout yesterday, we play Hornell twice on Sunday and once on Monday. That could potentially be for our division – but if we coast through until then, it’s not going to matter. So we’ve got to step it up and go to work on the rest of the games, too.”
The same two teams play again tomorrow, this time at Geneva’s McDonough Park, with the first pitch scheduled for 7 p.m.
“I just told the guys, ‘Let’s get this one past, it’s over with, and let’s go after them tomorrow,’” Bell said.
At St. Bonaventure:
Geneva – 0 11 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 – 13 11 2
Olean –– 0 1 0 0 2 0 0 0 1 – 4 8 4
Ratte (W, 5-2)(5 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 0 ER, 4 SO, 2 BB), Beath (6)(2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 SO, 3 BB), Connelly (9)(1 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 SO) and Walker
Nemeti (L, 4-1)(1.2 IP, 6 H, 11 R, 4 ER, 2 SO, 4 BB), Medina (2)(5.1 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 3 SO), Lee (8)(2 IP, 2 H, 1 R) and Pollakov
HR: Richards (4)
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