WELLSVILLE, N.Y. – There must be something in those rally caps. For the second time in as many nights, Wellsville’s Nitros used a late-inning comeback to defeat the Olean Oilers.
Jordan Wheaton (Alfred State) sparked a five-run seventh, and Kyle Perez (SUNY Brockport) tossed a complete game as Wellsville defeated Olean 5-3 in New York Collegiate Baseball League action, Thursday evening.
Wheaton was the first of five straight Wellsville hitters to reach safely. HIs two-out double plated Alec Bahnick and Gerard DeFilipo (Felician) as the Nitros erased a 3-0 deficit.
“Part of it is that we have a mentality that we are going to fight until the last out,” Wellsville coach Pat Leipold said. “Guys wanted to get to the next batter.”
Hot-hitting Christ Conley (Canisius) was walked, and Chris Kemp (Pitt-Bradford) singled up the middle to bring home Wheaton and Joe Simmons (St. John Fisher).
“The mentality was let me do what I can, so the guy behind me can keep it going,” Leipold added. “This is the kind of offense I expected we have.”
Ben Haefner (University of Buffalo), one of Wednesday’s heroes, kept the rally going with a base hit, and John Capwell (Mansfield) got some redemption with an RBI hit scoring Conley.
“We are a team that whether there are two outs or no outs can explode for runs.”
Capwell led the inning with a walk, but was eventually called out at home trying to advance on a dropped third strike.
Perez allowed one earned run on eight hits and three walks over nine full, but his effort was almost not to be.
“We were going to go Johnny whole-staff,” Leipold remarked. “We figured why not start a submariner.”
Perez struck out two for his first win of the season. This after he took the opening-day loss allowing two runs in a 6-4 loss to the Cortland Crush.
“We got an outstanding performance from Kyle,” Leipold noted. “We started off the year thinking he was going to be our closer. Nerves got him early.”
Olean scored all five of their runs in the third. Mike Fahrman (University of Florida) doubled home Austin Johnson (South Florida CC) and scored on a Ted Dilts (El Camino College) single. Mike Roman (St. John Fisher) led the stanza with a single and eventually came around on a Sam Kysor (USC-Upstate) ground ball.
The Oilers loaded the bases in the ninth but failed to capitalize.
Wellsville erased a three-run deficit in the eighth on Wednesday before going on to win in extra innings.
Kemp, Haefner and Bahnick all collected two hits for the Nitros.
Fahrman and Roman had two hits each for Olean.
Olean’s Austin Bizzle (Gulf Coast CC) started and tossed six shutout innings. The right-hander fanned five, walked four and allowed three hits.
Olean (1-2) hosts Niagara (2-2) for their home opener at Bradner Stadium. A 7 p.m. first pitch is scheduled.
Wellsville (2-3) gets a day off before traveling to Houghton to take on the Genesee Rapids (2-3).
“We’re going up to Genesee and looking to be .500,” Leipold stated.
Leave a Reply