By Paul Gotham
WEBSTER, NY – Friday night served up a tale of two games in New York Collegiate Baseball League action at Basket Road Field.
Patrick Kinney (Lindenwood U) hurled a complete game shutout in game one as the Rochester Ridgemen downed the Wellsville Nitros, 8-0. The night cap saw Wellsville bang out 11 hits for a 12-1 triumph.
Kinney struck out five, walked two and allowed three hits in his first appearance on the mound for the Ridgemen. The right-hander faced the minimum in four different innings and retired the last seven batters he faced.
“I haven’t had much on my fastball lately,” said the native of Indianapolis, Indiana. “I have really been using that as a get me over pitch. Then hopefully they can’t hit the breaking stuff.”
With Kinney holding the Wellsville in check Rochester’s offense found its stride often.
The Ridgemen tallied twice in the second when Nick Oddo (Cal St. San Bernadino) drilled a one-out bases loaded single into right field scoring Matthew Graben (Montevallo) and Nick Wolyniec (Siena).
Rochester sent 10 to the plate and put the game out of reach in the fifth.
Wolyniec started the outburst when he reached on an error. One out later, Oddo singled up the middle. Ryan Logan (Christian Brothers) brought home the first run of the stanza with a base hit to left center. Josh Tuner (Patrick Henry CC) loaded the bases when he was hit by a pitch. Then Ben Circeo (Bluefield) broke the game open when his ground ball up the middle caromed off the bag at second and ended up in right field. Two runs scored and the Ridgemen never looked.
As dominant as the Ridgemen looked in the opener, Wellsville played the part in the second game.
Chance DuCharme (Francis Marion) allowed one run over five innings, and a quartet of Wellsville batters notched multi-hit games.
The Nitros put crooked numbers on the board in the fourth, sixth and seventh.
Tied 1-1, Shane Barley (St. John Fisher) and Kevin Herren (Bellarmine) knocked back-to-back singles to start the fourth. Alec Bahnick (Bellarmine) delivered with a base hit scoring two, and the Nitros were off and running.
“It was a back and forth doubleheader,” said Wellsville head coach Anthony Barone. “They got us good the first game, and got ‘em back. I’m just happy to see our guys really responded well.”
Bahnick eventually scored on a sacrifice fly by Cody Trinch (Thiel College).
The Nitros scored four more in the sixth. Trinch doubled into the left field corner scoring pinch-runner Adam Lucey (Fisher College). Trinch and Bahnick came home when Thaddeus Johnson (St. Bonaventure) reached on an error. Aaron Brill (Felician) capped the inning with an RBI triple to right center.
Trinch and Anthony Baker added RBI singles in a four-run seventh putting the game well out of reach.
After starting the season 2-0, the Nitros played just one game in the next eight days because of rainouts. Coming off a loss Wednesday, they showed obvious signs of rust.
“We were in a little rut there,” Barone noted. “We lost to Olean the other day and came out flat today in the first game. The boys responded, and that’s the type of group we got.”
Kyle Zambanini (Indiana) and Jack Fowler (Felician) each pitched a scoreless inning in relief.
Brill gave Wellsville a 1-0 lead in the third on a solo shot off Rochester starter, Tim Knesnik (Stony Brook). Knesnik looked strong through the first three innings and pitched into the sixth before things came unraveled.
Wellsville hosts Hornell Saturday night at 5 p.m. with all proceeds from the game going Breast Cancer research.
Rochester hosts Olean for a 7 p.m. start.
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