By Paul Gotham
HORNELL, NY – Hornell’s Dodgers grabbed an early they never surrendered en route to an 8-6 victory over the Wellsville Nitros in game one of the New York Collegiate Baseball League semi-finals at Maple City Park.
Hornell tallied five runs in their first two at bats, and Chris Jansen (St. Joseph’s-Indiana) held the league’s top offense in check early to pick up his first playoff win.
“It really helped that our team put up runs in the first inning,” Jansen said. “That made it a lot easier.”
The left-hander from Cicero, IN retired the first ten batters he faced striking out a pair and getting three ground ball outs.
“He’s been good all year, but he’s been really good the last three times out,” stated Hornell head coach Tom Kenney. “You wonder if you’re going to keep getting that out of a guy. He’s someone who came in as a spot starter, middle guy. That was his reputation coming in. Since he’s been in the rotation he’s been great. He gave us absolutely what we needed. He gave us a bunch of innings. I couldn’t ask for more.”
The Dodgers jumped on Wellsville starter, Chance DuCharme (Francis Marion), for two runs on two hits and an error in the bottom of the first. Steven Goldstein (SUNY Stony Brook) led and reached when a ground ball was mishandled at third. Chris Roeder (St. John Fisher) moved the runner with a ground ball to the right side of the infield. One out later, Anthony Renz (Mansfield) plated Goldstein with a double inside the left field line. Dylan Dunn (Hagerstown CC) made it a 2-0 game with an RBI single into right center.
Hornell added three more in the second. Spencer Scorza (Monroe CC) opened the stanza with a base on balls. Michael Simmons (Montevallo) put runners on the corners when he went with the pitch and sent a drive into left center. Jake Kenney (Genesee CC) brought home Scorza on a hit and run ground out. Goldstein walked, and Roeder singled through the left side of the infield scoring Simmons. After the runners moved to second and third on the throw to the plate, Aaron Haag (Southeastern Louisiana U) chased DuCharme with an RBI bunt single between pitcher’s mound and first base.
“Hornell’s a good team, and they took advantage of our mistakes,” commented Wellsville head Anthony Barone. “Chance didn’t have his good stuff. He had a great regular season, and he was my guy going into the game. He sorta came up to me after warm-ups and said ‘I’m going to battle.’ He didn’t feel that great, so give him that for the effort.”
Hornell had a chance to blow the game open. Justin Wood (Penn St. Behrend) came out of the bullpen and walked Renz, but the right-hander got out of the bases loaded jam with a strike out and fly ball to right field.
Wellsville put a run on the board in the fourth. Aaron Brill (Felician) got aboard with a one-out single to left. After Goldstein tracked down a Shane Barley (St. John Fisher) drive to deep center, Alec Bahnick (Bellarmine) put runners on the corners with a base hit to right. As they have done in the past, the Nitros used the double steal to push across the run. Bahnick sacrificed himself on the base paths. While he was caught in the rundown between first and second, Brill scampered home.
Dunn and Hornell stretched their advantage in the home half.
Roeder singled to left. Haag reached when his pop fly to shallow center fell. Renz walked to load the bases, and Dunn brought home a pair with a base hit to right center. The local product followed that with some crafty base-running to get the Blue and White an insurance run.
Sean McCracken (Southern Nevada) lifted a fly ball to left. It was not deep enough to score Renz from third, but he tagged and forced the throw to the plate. Haag alertly returned to first and advanced on the play. Renz scored on the ensuing ground ball – a possible double play situation avoided by Haag.
“That got us a run that inning, and that’s a huge play,” Kenney noted. “It’s a smart base-running play. He made a great read. Nobody helped him on that. The next play is a double play. The inning is over if he doesn’t do that. They’re (Wellsville) a great team. It’s been a great series all year. It comes down to little stuff like that.”
The Nitros chipped away at the lead from there.
Thad Johnson (St. Bonaventure) started the fifth with a line drive through the right side of the infield. He was erased on a Tyler Lau (Illinois-Springfield) ground ball, but the throw to first was wild, and Lau moved to second. Cameron Friess (Texas St.) delivered with an RBI single to right center.
Wellsville cut the gap to two with two runs each in the sixth and seventh.
Brill lead the sixth with a base rap. Barley got aboard on an error, and Bahnick plated Brill with a seeing-eye single through the left side. Barley moved to third on the play and scored when Dave DeWolfe (Francis Marion) grounded into a double play.
An inning later, Brill doubled home Friess and eventually scored on a wild pitch. The Nitros had the chance for more in the frame, but Jansen slowed the rally.
Friess and Cody Trinch (Thiel) got the inning going with back-to-back base hits, and Scott DeJong (Felician), the league’s single-season home run king, came to the plate with a chance to cut the lead the to one. After going full count, Jansen induced a ground ball which the Hornell infield converted into a 4-6-3 double play.
“He’s obviously a fastball hitter,” Jansen explained. “We tried to keep him off-balance all night. I threw a lot of change-ups to him. It seemed to be pretty effective and got out in front on him. I started wearing down a little bit right there and just muscled through it. I went with my fastball. I figured 3-2 I’m going to go with my best pitch.”
Eric Schell (Penn St. Greater Allegheny) worked two scoreless innings for the save.
Nick Anderson (San Diego St.) hurled three shutout stanzas out of the bullpen for the Nitros. The Wellsville native struck out one and allowed just one hit.
“I thought Nick Anderson was phenomenal, again,” Barone commented. “He’s been lights out.”
Kevin Herren (Bellarmine) and Andrew White (William and Mary) each held the Dodgers without a run for an inning.
“Hornell’s got a good offense, so to shut them down for the last four or five innings was good pitching,” Barone continued. “I’m glad to see my guys fought hard. They’re supposed to win at home. I told my guys ‘we’re going to win tomorrow, and it will come down to a game three.”
Brill led all batters with four hits in five trips. The senior shortstop scored three runs and drove in one, but he left the game with an injury after stretching to beat the throw at first in the ninth. His status for game two was unknown.
Dunn, Haag, Renz and Roeder each collected two hits for Hornell. Dunn led all with three RBI.
Game two of the best-of-three shifts to Wellsville. Jimmy Gutowski (Monroe CC/4-1 2.83 ERA) gets the start for Hornell. Barone and Wellsville counter with Tanner Delahoy (Mercyhurst/ 2-0 4.09 ERA). A 5 p.m. first pitch is scheduled at Wellsville Central.
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