By Dan Lonky (@danlonky)
HORNELL, NY – The Oneonta Outlaws claimed the 2013 New York Collegiate Baseball League championship Monday night, as they took down the Hornell Dodgers 6-1 at Maple City Park.
Brandon Stephens (University of Georgia) earned Playoff Most Valuable Player with his second save of the post-season.
“It’s a great feeling,” Stephens said. “These are great guys. It’s been an awesome season. I am happy I was able to help out.”
After being used as a reliever the entirety of the regular season, Brandon Agar (North Georgia Col) made the start for the Outlaws and did a great job adjusting to the new role. The right-hander was dominant, shutting out the Dodgers over 5.1 impressive innings.
“I was a starter in high school, so it’s just been a while since I’ve done it,” Agar noted. “Coach talked to me last night. He said ‘I want you to carry this team.’ What I learned in high school is you just need to give a team a chance. When you give a team like this a chance, they can do anything.”
After earning the series-clinching win in Saturday night’s semi-final with Olean, Agar struck out five and walked two against Hornell, Monday.
“Everything was working early,” Agar stated. “Later on, fatigue set in, and I kinda went to the fastball, slider. It just carried me. They’re a good-hitting ball team. They were tough to pitch against.”
Oneonta was able to scatter six runs throughout the game off Hornell pitchers Chris Jansen (St. Josephs Col) and Eric Schell (Penn St Greater Alleghany). With the bats, the Dodgers were only able to manage a single run in the eighth inning, despite matching the Outlaws in hits with eight.
Both teams kept each other from scoring until the top of the fourth inning. After singling and stealing both second and third base, Mitch Hollander (Cortland St) came home to score the game’s first run on a Stephens RBI single. Josh Treff (Northeastern U) brought home another Oneonta run with an RBI groundout.
In the sixth inning, Oneonta was looking to pad their lead. Brian Kraft (Grand Canyon U) stepped up and led off the inning with a towering home run to center field, increasing the Outlaws lead to 3-0.
The Dodgers posed their first big threat against Agar in the sixth inning. With runners on the corners and one out, Outlaws Head Coach Joe Hughes brought in Zach Moreau (Grambling St) to protect the three-run lead. Moreau would come up huge, getting Dylan Dunn (Hagerstown CC) to ground into an inning-ending 1-6-4 double play.
“With the guy on first base I was just trying to get a ground ball. I was trying to get out of the inning allowing no runs to score.” Moreau said of his approach.
Oneonta was able to add to their lead once again in the seventh inning. After a Ryan Tomita (Grand Canyon) sacrifice fly brought home one run, another would come home to score on the play as a poor throw from the left fielder soared past the catcher for an error.
Hornell got their lone run off of Moreau in the eighth inning. Anthony Renz (Mansfield U) was able to bring home a run with an RBI single, but it wouldn’t mount a rally as the Dodgers were then set down on a pair of pop ups.
In the top of the ninth, Jake Levine (Brown U) gave Oneonta some more breathing room, as he singled home Chris Pindar (Oneonta St) for the Outlaws sixth run of the game.
The five-run lead was more than enough for Stephens who came in to pitch the bottom of the ninth. The hard-throwing righty set down the Dodgers with ease, leading to a dog pile of NYCBL champions in front of the pitcher’s mound.
“Pitching again was the answer and we got some timely hitting to go ahead early. It was a great whole team effort and I’m proud of these guys.” Hughes said after the game.
Agar earned the top Defensive Player of the Playoffs. Hornell’s Aaron Haag (Southeastern Louisiana) garnered Top Offensive Player honors.
Who won pitcher of the playoffs award?