By Paul Gotham
LIVERPOOL, N.Y. — It was billed as a pitcher’s duel. It was anything but that. In the end, the Syracuse Jr. Chiefs did what they always do: score runs… a lot of them.
Zach Lauricella (St. John’s) collected three extra-base hits as the Jr. Chiefs outscored the Niagara Power, 12-9 at Hopkins Road Park, Friday afternoon to take a 1-0 lead in the New York Collegiate Baseball League Championship series.
Lauricella highlighted an eight-run fourth inning with a bases-clearing double to deep center field.
“Zach is the real deal,” Syracuse coach Casey Scott said. “He’s a good kid. He was the one kid who came here from a big school. He came in level-headed, and bought into what we were doing from day one.”
Lauricella plated Frank Salerno (St. Thomas Aquinas), Tim Locastro (Ithaca) and Alex Sanchez, Jr. (Ave Maria) as the Jr. Chiefs sent a dozen to the plate and turned a four-run deficit into a four-run advantage.
“At this point we’re not really going to change who we are,” Scott explained. “We’ve been putting up double digit runs all year, and that is how we are going to win this thing.”
Brian Witkowski (Alvernia) led the stanza with a double down the right field line and capped the scoring with a solo shot to right. In between Witkowski’s bookends, Salerno and Sanchez, Jr. had RBI singles; Riley Moonan (Fairleigh Dickinson) drove in one with a triple, and Patrick McClure added a sacrifice fly for a 12-8 lead.
“They lived up to the hype,” Niagara coach Garret Shivley said while referring to the Jr. Chiefs .334 team batting average. “They hit well today.”
Niagara jumped to a 2-0 lead in the first.
Adam Taylor (North Greenville) and Nicholas Linne (Northwestern) drilled back-to-back two-out RBI singles for the Power.
Lauricella and Syracuse responded in the home half. With Locastro aboard, Lauricella connected on a bomb over the fence in left center field.
“I felt good at the plate today,” Lauricella commented. “I tried to just have a basic approach. Just go in there, see it and just drive it up the middle. It worked today, so I’m very happy the way my teammates and I came back to win this game.”
The Power took over from there batting around in the second and scoring eight.
Spencer Bowles (St. Leo) and Jamon Hammel (Huntington) started the frame with back-to-back base hits. Niagara loaded the bases when Ryan Keisel’s (Trinity Christian) sacrifice bunt was mishandled. Shakeel Newton (Genesee CC) rapped a hit through the left side of the infield. Hammel caught Zach Blanden (Binghamton) by surprise and never hesitated coming around third to score.
One out later, Tyler Schweigert (Eastern Illinois) delivered with a double down the right field line scoring Kiesel and Newton.
“Niagara played real well,” Scott said. “They came out and punched us in the mouth like no team really has. They were not afraid of us and our big-time run production.”
It appeared Niagara had destiny on its side when Neil DeCook (Western Illinois) beat out an infield single to first. DeCook caught Ryan Sonberg (Bates) on his heels and dove head first into the bag while Taylor scored. DeCook capped the scoring when he allowed himself to get caught in a rundown, and Nicholas Linne (Northwestern) scampered home.
Syracuse scored single runs in the second and third before exploding in the fourth.
The game starters, Steven Beckham (Olivet Nazarene) and Alex Basso (Manahttanville) came in as two of the league’s hurlers. Beckham made eight appearances including six starts for the Power. He was 4-0 with an ERA of 1.84. In game one, he couldn’t get out of the fourth allowing all 12 runs (nine earned).
Basso was 5-0 with an ERA of 2.19. Niagara touched Basso for eight runs (five earned) in just two innings.
Jed Lehman (Binghamton) came out of the bullpen for the win. The right-hander struck out two, walked three and allowed one run over three innings.
Dean Bonneau (Bates) hurled 2.2 scoreless innings.
“Alex had an uncharacteristic start for him,” Scott noted. “Kind of like we’ve done all year mostly with our offense and get it to the next guy. Jed and Dean came in and gave us some shutout innings.”
JD Tyler (Northwood) had the four-out save. He retired all four batters he faced.
“As long as we can get the ball to JD with the lead, we feel pretty comfortable.”
Seth Eller (Mt. Vernon Nazarene) tossed four and a third shutout innings for the Power.
With the victory, the Jr. Chiefs move within one win of the NYCBL championship.
Lauricella knows the possibility. He made 50 starts the St. John’s Red Storm who advanced to the Super-Regionals of the College World Series. The Clarence, NY native hit .263 with two home runs and 32 RBI for the Big East champion. He had three hits in three trips in game one with five RBI and three runs scored.
“It’s a cool feeling having such a successful year at school then coming to this team that has such great players up and down the whole lineup,” Lauricella said. “It’s just a really cool feeling to be back in another situation where you have a chance to win a championship.
Sonberg also had three hits for the Jr. Chiefs.
Schweigert led the Power with three hits.
Niagara, which played without making an error in Wednesday’s win over the Geneva Twins to take the NYCBL Western Division title, committed an untimely miscue in the Jr. Chiefs eight-run fourth.
The series shifts to Niagara. A 7 p.m. first pitch is scheduled Saturday at Sal Maglie Stadium.
Leave a Reply