By Alicia Daddario
SYRACUSE, NY — Dan Szathmary (Georgia Coll & St. U) led the Syracuse Salt Cats to a 7-0 victory from the mound, Thursday evening against the Geneva Red Wings in New York Collegiate Baseball League action at LeMoyne College.
An impressive stat line next to Szathmary’s name in the boxscore helped the Salt Cats record improve to 13-12. He went five brilliant innings, only giving up one hit, one walk, and struck out three.
“I had a lot of first pitch outs. I had a low pitch count, I think it was 59 pitches though 5 innings. It’s always good throwing your first pitch for contact. When you have a defense like I have behind you, you put the ball in play and they’ll make plays for you, ” Szathmary said of his performance against the Red Wings.
Szmathmary wasn’t the only pitcher on fire tonight. Relief pitchers Sean Pisik (Ursinus) and All-Star Bo Watson (St. Bonaventure) combined for four scoreless innings, only allowing three hits and one walk with three strikeouts.
“We have one of the best bull pens in the league. So they’re definitely going to be strong,” Szathmary raved about his teammates.
On the offensive side of the ball, the Salt Cats struck first and never looked back. The All-Stars for the Cats went to work quickly, including the center fielder Carlos Guzman (Molloy), who also leads the league in batting average. His usual lead off spark for Syracuse was in effect early as Guzman singled up the middle to start of the inning. Third baseman Mike DeCarr (SUNY Cortland) used his patience to work a walk. Cristian Fiorito (Concordia) is currently second in the league in RBI and continued to knock in the runs with a double to deep left field, allowing Guzman to cross home plate.
Next up, Colton Montgomery (Georgia Coll & St. U) grounded out to third base but still picked up an RBI as DeCarr scores the second run of the inning. First baseman Zach Carlino (Mt. Union) drove in Fiorito with a rocket single. To finish off the inning, catcher Tyler Barrett (Central Conn. St.), who has been battling an injury, punches one right back up the middle to bring Carlino in.
Salt Cats led 4-0 after 1 inning over Geneva.
Syracuse would get another scoring opportunity in the fifth inning as Fiorito bombed a home run over the right field fence at Rockwell for his third homer of the season. Kyle Feazell (louisiana Coll) entered the game, replacing Barrett at the catching position, at the perfect time as he followed suit with a home run of his own, over the left field wall.
Feazell leads the Salt Cats in the home run department with four on the season.
The Cats would go on to score one more run as Guzman reached base on a Geneva error and scoring on an Anthony Massicci ground out. The Salt Cats shutout the Red Wings 7-0 in a much needed win.
Syracuse hopes to continue the winning momentum as they head into a long and difficult stretch of 16 games in 11 days. Next up for the Salt Cats is a double header at home against their city rival the Syracuse Jr. Chiefs Friday afternoon. Games are scheduled for 2 and 5 pm.
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