By Paul Gotham
HOUGHTON, N.Y. — Genesee’s Rapids know how to make a good first impression.
Zach Uher (Baruch College) hurled seven solid innings as Genesee defeated Niagara’s Power, 6-1 in New York Collegiate Baseball League action at the Kerr-Pegula Complex on Sunday.
Uher allowed one run on seven hits and three walks while striking out seven.
“The curve ball was my best pitch today,” Uher noted. “I was a little up in the zone at first then got down in the zone with my fastball.”
After allowing a run in the second, the left-hander set down seven of eight between the third and fifth.
“Zach had a great outing on the mound for us,” Genesee coach Tyler Rost said. “That’s all you can ask from a guy to battle and battle for seven innings. I though he consistently got ahead of hitters all day, and that helped him. He could kinda work in some off-speed stuff in once he got ahead.”
Nathan Stanley (Clearwater Christian) paced the Genesee offense which got all the runs they needed in their first at bat. Stanley got the better of a college teammate when he led the bottom of the first with a home run to left on Will Kirby’s (Clearwater Christian) third pitch.
“He’s been telling me he’s going to beat me,” Stanley said smiling. “He’s joking around and stuff, but I guess I got the better end of it. It was a 2-1 count. You gotta come with a fastball. He elevated it a little bit. I just got it.”
“I did not expect that,” Rost stated. “Stanley’s a good hitter, but he’s a guy who flies around the bases, likes to bunt, likes to steal. He’s not your typical guy who’s just going to walk up there and drop a bomb like that. It really got us going.”
One out later, Andrew Bonnette (Walsh) singled home Tony Schultz (Northwestern College). Genesee capped the inning when D.J. Gasso (Weatherford) took a bases-loaded hit by pitch scoring Kellen Creech (Ave Maria).
Bonnette finished the day with two hits in four trips to the plate and two RBI.
“I was just trying to make sure I could get the bat head on the ball,” Bonnette commented. “Stay short, and it found its holes. That’s really what we’re trying to do here.”
Genesee added a pair of insurance runs in the seventh.
Stanley slapped a one-out base hit to left. Schultz walked, and Creech knocked an inside-out single to right. Stanley came around to score when the ball was mishandled in the outfield. Bonnette made it a 5-1 game with an RBI double to left center.
“He just has a nice, quiet swing,” Rost said of Bonnette. “He’s a guy who could probably hit 3, 4 or 5 for us. Our middle of the order guys are really good. He’s in there because I know he’s going to have a good at bat. He’s not going to try to do too much with the pitch. He just takes what he’s going to get from the pitcher.”
The win was the first in Genesee Rapids franchise history.
“That’s big,” Rost said of the win. “Hopefully, it got the fans excited. I thought we played pretty solid baseball today.”
“We’re really happy we got all this fan support,” Bonnette stated. “Doing it for them. Going to church this morning and 30 people came up to me and wished me luck, even the pastor at the altar was saying the same thing.”
For Niagara it was a matter of missed opportunities.
“We had hitting, but not necessarily timely hitting,” Niagara coach Josh Rebandt explained. “When you do that, you’re not going to win a lot of ball games.”
The Power left nine men on base.
Sean Visconti (Palm Beach Atlantic) collected three hits and scored a run for the Power. Hunter Bingham (William Jewell) and Ivan Acuna (Catawba Valley CC) knocked a pair of hits each. Bingham drove in the lone Power run with a two-out base hit to center in the second.
“Just a lot of things in baseball that happened that didn’t go our way,” Rebandt noted. “We learn from them and get better.”
After a rough first inning, Kirby tossed four shutout stanzas. The right-hander fanned four and walked one.
“He settled down once the game got going,” Rebandt said. The home run he gave up to one of his teammates at Clearwater that will throw you off for an inning. He settled in really well. That’s what he does. He gets better as the game goes on.”
Cameron Bommer (Anderson) threw two scoreless innings in relief for Genesee.
The same two teams meet again Tuesday night back at Kerr-Pegula. Genesee hosts the Olean Oilers Monday. A 7 pm first pitch is scheduled.
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