By Cameron Boon
WEBSTER, N.Y. — The Rochester Ridgemen bounced back from their first loss of the season with an 8-2 victory over the Genesee Rapids in New York Collegiate Baseball League action at Basket Road Field, Thursday.
“It was a team effort today,” Nick Wolyniec (Bergen CC) said.
Rochester got a solid seven-inning outing from starter Dustin King (Hannibal-LaGrange College) and Wolyniec, after sitting last night, had a stellar night at the plate, going 3-for-4 with three RBI.
“You always know you’re going to get tough ABs out of him,” Rochester coach Brady James said. “He can barrel up a ball with the best of them.”
Rochester prided themselves on fast starts and good defense this year, as they have scored runs in the first inning in two of their first three wins. Tonight was off to a good start as well, they put three on the board and would not look back.
“A fast start puts us all at ease,” Sullivan said.
After a 3-0 loss last night to the Hornell Dodgers where the offense never got going, a good start was key. “We wanted to make sure we didn’t come out flat,” James said.
Shane Soria (Glendale CC) started the game with a double, and later scored on a Will Bass (New Mexico JC) RBI single. Bass, after advancing to second on a passed ball, scored on Wolyniec’s single. “I was blessed on that at-bat and hit a ball above my head into center field,” Wolyniec said about the hit. He advanced to second on an error by Jack LaMarca (Ohio Northern University), and then scored when Trent Sullivan (MidAmerica Nazarene University) doubled.
Sullivan then stole third, but wasn’t able to score as Genesee starter Adam Journic (Capital University) retired the final two batters of the inning.
Andrew Bonnette (Walsh University) and LaMarca cut Rochester’s lead to one in the fourth and it looked as if there was going to be a ball game at The Basket. Bonnette got it started with an RBI single that scored Rene Rivera, making it 3-1.
“I tried to not do too much with it and got a hit,” Bonnette said about the at-bat.
LaMarca then roped a double that scored Bonnette and cut the lead to 3-2. But that was as close as the Rapids would get.
“We fought our way back, but things didn’t go our way after this,” Bonnette said.
Wolyniec got his second RBI of the game in the fifth via a single that scored Bass, the second time this combination happened on the night.
Sullivan then made it 5-2 when he singled in Wolyniec. This was Sullivan’s second RBI of the game.
Wolyniec put himself into scoring position by stealing second after singling, one of five different Ridgemen players to steal a base in the game.
In the top half of the seventh, the Rapids had a big opportunity to get back into the game. They had runners on second and third with one out, but in King’s last act as the starter, he was able to get Nathan Dietz (Cazenovia College) to strike out swinging and Rivera to ground out to second.
“We didn’t capitalize on the chances we had to get back in the game,” Genesee coach Tyler Rost said.
Wolyniec was the one extending the lead in the seventh, when he singled, scoring Zane Mapes (Kansas City Kansas CC).
“I got pitches I wanted to hit today,” Wolyniec said. It was Mapes’ first game with a hit since the second game of the season on June 2.
Rochester then put the icing on the cake in the eighth, as Holt Davis (UAB) snapped out of a slump with a routine fly ball that Bonnette, the right fielder, lost in the lights and it dropped. This wasn’t the end of by far the wildest play of the year, as Davis was then caught in a wild run down between first and second. After five throws, Dietz, the Rapids catcher, applied the tag on Davis, but dropped the ball, and Davis scampered and slid back into first base safely.
Davis then scored when Soria singled, finishing the scoring for Rochester.
The Ridgemen finished with 17 hits on the day, by far the most in a game in this young season.
“Hitting is contagious,” Sullivan said with a laugh.
The Rapids finished with seven, which is a good day by normal standards. But they grounded into a pair of inning-ending double plays. “Our approach at the plate wasn’t very good,” Rost said.
Same teams, same time, same place tomorrow night as the Ridgemen look for the sweep.
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