By Nick Ristoff
SYRACUSE, NY- The Syracuse Jr. Chiefs rallied and put together a big seventh inning and went on to their first win of the season.
Nate Stemle (Kentucky Wesleyan) had a huge three-run triple as the Jr. Chiefs beat the Red Wings 6-4 at Onondaga Community College Field, Friday night.
“I’ve been telling them after every game that we have the ability to hit the ball and score a bunch of runs… we knew once we started to get a couple of hits it could be contagious and we could put together a big inning,” Jr. Chiefs coach, Chris Haynes said.
In the bottom of the seventh inning Dan McBryan (Oglethrope) replaced Drew Doring (John Carroll) who was pumping curveballs past the Jr. Chiefs all night long.
McBryan walked Mark Martin (Bryant) on four pitches. Brian Burns (Ithaca) walked on 3-1 high fastball. With Luke Emling (Villinova) at the plate, Martin stole third on the 2-2 pitch. Emling walked on an eight-pitch full count.
With the bases loaded, Ben Ryder (Alabama A&M) came in to relieve McBryan after facing just three batters. Next, Michael Lanza (Bryant) singled on a low center field hopper and one runner scored. After Carlos Tapia (Siena) flew out to right field, Matt McCann (Fairleigh Dickinson) cracked a RBI single to right field and another runner scored. Brian Dudek struck out on a high fastball. Then Nate Stemle hit a deep line drive, three -run RBI triple. Jason Lundy (Fordham) then hit a grounder to the shortstop for an RBI single as he beat out the throw to first. Martin struck out on an outside fastball to end the inning with the Jr. Chiefs winning 6-4.
“We were down the first five, six innings then we just picked it up from there…you don’t change your approach that late in the game we looked for fastballs up in the zone to punch and drive,” Lanza said.
From then on the Jr. Chiefs pitching staff hung in strong and pulled away with the victory. Tanner Whiteman (Onondaga Community College) joined the team just a couple of days ago and got his first glimpse of action tonight. He struck out six batters in just three innings. Whiteman used his fastball and curve to run through the Red Wings line-up. Whiteman got the win in his debut.
Thomas Eng (Adrian) closed out the game for the Jr. Chiefs striking out two batters with his junk.
Although the Jr. Chiefs deserve praise for pulling out their first win of the season, the Red Wings had one really impressive inning showing off their big bats.
The Jr. Chiefs found themselves in an early four-run deficit as the Red Wings piled it on in the top of the second inning. The Red Wings made it look like batting practice.
Travis Kreitz (Kutztown) hit a line drive over the shortstop Matt McCann’s (Fairleigh Dickinson) head for a single. Next, Clay Sebesky (Kutztown) blooped to shallow right field for a base hit. Then Mike Osinksy (Longwood) laid down a sacrifice but to advance the runners to second and third, he got thrown out at first. The first two scored runs of the game occurred when Tommy Haas (Arkansas Pine Bluff) singled over McCann’s head.
Following Haas’s double RBI, John Cruz singled on a line drive to the gap between center and left center field. With two runners on base the Chiefs pitcher Shawn Kanwisher (Manhattan) threw the 2-1 pitch into the dirt and the runners advanced to second and third. Ricky Gorrell (Kutztown) got away with a slow infield single to the shortstop and a runner scored. Sam Kim (Hawaii Hilo) also advanced to first base on an infield single, runner scores from third. Finally, a strikeout ended the four run top of the second.
With the win, the Jr. Chiefs handed the Geneva Red Wings their first loss.
The Jr. Chiefs and Red Wings face-off in a rematch tomorrow, June 7 at Hopkins Road, taking place at 2 p.m.
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