By Stephen Borgna
CORTLAND, N.Y.— The Syracuse Salt Cats defeated Cortland Crush 10-7 in New York Collegiate Baseball action, Friday evening. The Salt Cats managed to come out unscathed from a Cortland Crush rally in the bottom of the seventh inning.
With Cortland trailing 10-2 in the bottom of the seventh, an RBI single by Josh Savacool (Ithaca College), two-RBI single by Connor Dwyer (Saginaw Valley State University), and two-RBI single by Christopher Kwitzer (University of Buffalo), minimized the deficit to three—the score now being 10-7.
“We could have rolled over and died, but we came back,” Cortland Head Coach Yale Hughes said. “To fight back like that… It was a moral victory.”
Cortland’s rally was interrupted by reliever Aveeno Nasilowski (Chicago State University), who put the game away for the Salt Cats.
“He’s hard like that every time,” Syracuse Head Coach Manny Martinez said. “He’s a shutdown guy when he’s on.”
The Crush were the first to get on the board Friday evening, with an RBI single by Wesley Burghardt (SUNY Brockport) sending Zachary Racusin home and putting Cortland ahead 1-0. However, a two-RBI double by Syracuse’s Anthony Morino (Mount Union College) and an RBI single by Anthony Massicci (Canisius College) during the top of the second put the Salt Cats ahead 4-1.
The Salt Cats would lead by no less than three runs for the remainder of the game.
Syracuse’s Matt Hardy (Nova Southeastern University) played a key-role in keeping the Crush at bay, especially in the middle of the game. Throughout the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth innings, Cortland was limited to only three hits.
“Third, Fourth, Fifth inning the balls were getting a lot less stickier, and I was able to get a nice little grip to it,” Hardy said. “And then I was able to get down into a groove.”
Syracuse’s effectiveness at the plate was another key-factor in their victory.
“We were hitting the ball hard at people,” Martinez said. “It was one of those nights we hit it hard and balls fell.”
Cortland pitcher Tom Taplin (University of Buffalo) experienced Coach Martinez’s statement in a very literal sense. At the top of the ninth, Taplin took a hard hit off of his foot. In a dramatic play that kept the crowd on their toes, Taplin immediately sprung up, ran to first, and almost got the runner out.
“I was amazed that he almost got the guy out at first base,” Hughes said. “You know, first I’m thinking ‘are you okay,’ then you look up (and) you see the ball and he almost gets him out at first. He’s a gamer man, he’s a tough kid.”
Taplin, who threw four strikeouts in two innings after coming in at the top of the eighth, will likely be a valuable asset for Cortland in the games ahead.
“He’s tough. The kid’s tough and he throws hard,” Martinez said. “He hides it well, and he’s got a little bit of an angle. He’s going to be tough.”
Cortland put up a fight on both sides of the ball in a great home debut, especially in the later innings. But Syracuse managed to keep the Crush contained in the Salt Cat’s first win after experiencing two previous losses. Coach Martinez said it was a good win over a good opponent.
“We’ll take a win like this any day,” Martinez stated. “This builds confidence.”
However, Martinez stressed his team needs to remain focused on the game ahead.
“Moving forward, we have to win the next game,” Martinez stated. “We can’t worry about yesterday and we can’t look forward to three or four days from now. We have to worry about right now and the next game.”
The Salt Cats (3-3) will be facing The Crush (1-1) in a rematch this Sunday at 2pm in Syracuse.
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