By Paul Gotham
ROCHESTER, NY – At 5-8, Rayshelon Carolina (Willemstad, Curacao/St.Jozef Secondary) is one of the smallest in the lineup of the Monroe Community College baseball team. Tuesday afternoon, the freshman outfielder stood the tallest.
Carolina beat out a two-out walk off infield base hit as the MCC Tribunes (19-9/3-1) rallied in dramatic fashion to sweep (4-1/4-3) the Genesee Community College Cougars (11-6/0-4) in WNYAC action at Tribunes Field.
Carolina’s hit plated Danny Mendick (Pittsford, NY/Pittsford Mendon) with the game-winner completing a late-inning rally to win in extra innings.
“I was just trying to get my pitch,” Carolina said of the winning hit. “He came inside on me, and I just turned on it and got a hit.”
Down three going into their last at bat, the Tribunes took advantage of Genesee starter, Brandon Stagg’s (Guelph, Canada) generosity to tie the game. AJ Kehlenbeck (Oakfield, NY/Oakfield-Alabama) led the seventh with the first of three base on balls. Mendick followed with another walk. After Kehlenbeck moved 90 feet on a wild pitch, Brett Sanders (Greece, NY/Greece Olympia) broke through with an RBI single up the middle.
Angel Rosario (Bridgeport, CT/Bullard Havens) loaded the bases with another free pass, and Carolina brought home Mendick on a ground ball to the right side of the infield.
“Everyone wants to win,” Mendick said when talking about his teammates. “We came back as a team. It shows what we got.”
Brad Kazcka (Pittsford, NY/ Pittsford-Sutherland) evened the score with a sacrifice fly to deep center that nearly beat Genesee outfielder Shakeel Newton (Christiansted, Virgin Islands), but the speedy sophomore ran it down and made an over the shoulder grab to slow the rally. Sanders came home on the play.
The Tribunes had their chances to score in the fifth and sixth but were turned away both times. Mendick led the fifth with a double, but was left stranded at third. Kazcka opened the sixth with a four-pitch walk and was erased in a double play.
“These guys at times drive me insane,” said Monroe head coach Mike Kelly. “But they never in any game just fold it up and walk away.”
After six scoreless stanzas Monroe’s patience won out.
“We just made adjustments at the plate,” Kelly explained. “Their pitcher really wasn’t throwing a lot of strikes, and we were bailing him out. We took advantage of knowing that later in the game, and it came back to help us.”
GCC scored single runs in the second, fifth and seventh. Jacob Kenney (Hornell, NY), Newton and Sean Sutton (Toronto, ONT) strung together three one-out singles. A questionable call on a ground ball down the first baseline brought home a run on a fielder’s choice.
Kenney led the seventh with a triple and scored one out later on Sutton’s hit.
Cass Roberts (Canandaigua, NY/Canandaigua Academy) went the distance and then some for his first victory of the season. The right-hander struck out three, walked three and allowed six hits and three earned runs for the win.
“I was trying to throw strikes and pound the zone,” Roberts noted. “As long as we can get our bats going I just need to keep them to minimal runs.”
After allowing a run in the top of the seventh, Roberts came back in the eighth and faced the minimum getting a double play ball to end the frame.
“I thought I was coming out during the seventh,” Roberts said with a smile. “I was not ready to go back out.”
Dylan Sheffer (Penfield, NY/ Penfield) worked six-plus innings for the win in game one. The right-hander scattered six hits allowing one earned run.
Zack Melino (Rochester, NY/Gates-Chili) came on with two runners aboard and retired the side for the save.
“They’re a good hitting team,” Kelly said of GCC. “You have to keep them off balance. You have to be able to throw all three pitches for strikes. Both guys we sent out there, including Zack for the save, they just did that. That’s all you can really ask for out of your pitching staff.”
Vinny Bomasuto (Dunkirk,NY/Dunkirk) laced two more triples and scored two runs in the opener. He tripled with two outs in the bottom of the first and scored on a wild pitch. Bomasuto led the fifth with a three-bagger and came home when Spencer Scorza (Penfield, NY/ Penfield) followed with a base hit.
Monroe scored two in the fourth. Jalen Dennis (Rochester, NY/ Aquinas Institute) started the inning with a single and moved to third on an error by the pitcher. Dennis eventually scored on a wild pitch. Kehlenbeck walked. After moving to second when Rosario was hit by a pitch and third on a balk, Kehlenbeck scored on Carolina’s sacrifice fly.
Monroe turned in a pair of uninspired performances of late gaining doubleheader splits at home against Onondaga Community College last Thursday and Sunday against Jefferson CC.
“Today was a big day,” Roberts stated. I’m glad we came around and won both. It’s huge. Everyone was all jacked up for these games.
“We got six games this week,” Roberts continued. “We went 6-0 when we came back from Arizona. We were like this week let’s go 6-0 again. We can do it. We got the team to do it.”
Bomasuto now has 12 triples on the season as he continues to add to the program’s single-season mark. The sophomore outfielder also walked three times in the two games.
Mendick went 3-5 on the afternoon with a walk and two runs scored.
Kehlenbeck had two hits in four at bats with two walks and two runs scored.
Monroe continues WNYAC play when Mercyhurst North East comes to town Thursday. A 1 p.m. first pitch is scheduled.
Leave a Reply