By Cameron Boon
WEBSTER, N.Y. — The Geneva Twins blew a three-run lead in the bottom of the sixth to the Rochester Ridgemen, but took it right back for good in the seventh in a 5-3 victory on Tuesday night at Basket Road Field in a New York Collegiate Baseball League Western Division matchup.
DJ Link (Harvard) put it together at the plate, going three-for-four with a trio of singles, and Cory Teachout (Ashland) pitched a solid 5.2 innings, only allowing three runs on three hits.
“The curveball looked just like his fastball and that was key,” Nick Callahan, the Twins head man, said about the performance, the third quality outing in a row for a Twins pitcher. “You need pitching in this league to be good, and ours is just starting to get going.”
The Ridgemen dropped their second in a row and fourth of their last six games after starting the 2014 season 3-0.
“We’re still not believing that we’re as good a team as we really are,” Rochester coach Brady James said.
Geneva jumped out early to a 3-0 lead after three innings and seemed to have control of the game.
After Brett Connors (Siena) reached on an error by right fielder Trent Sullivan (MidAmerica Nazarene), Link singled to put runners on first and second. “I’ve been trying to keep my hands quiet and it turned into a couple hard line drives,” Link said.
Connors then scored on Jason Ibrahim’s (Arkansas-Pine Bluff) double down the left field line, giving the Twins the early lead. They then doubled it when Michael Konyesni (Mount Union) drove a sacrifice fly to the warning track in right, scoring Link.
Geneva then went up 3-0 when Mike Annone (Wilmington) drove in Zach Goldstein (Southern New Hampshire) from third after Goldstein led off the inning with a triple to left-center.
Sullivan’s error was one of the three that the Ridgemen had on the day, two of which were charged to third baseman Garrett Ruckel (Jacksonville), who is normally geared up behind the plate catching. “Having guys that haven’t gotten reps in their positions which always hurts,” James said.
The Ridgemen rallied to tie the game in the sixth, though. Shane Soria (Glendale CC) got the rally going with a triple down the left field line. After Andy Santana (Geneva College) drew a walk, Will Bass (New Mexico JC) hit a sacrifice fly to left to plate the first run of the game for Rochester. Santana then stole second, and scored on Nick Wolyniec’s (Bergen CC) triple to right-center field. Wolyniec then tied the game by scoring on Matt Emge’s (Pittsburgh) RBI single.
Before this rally, the Ridgemen had been retired in 15 of their previous 16 plate appearance, and hitless in all 16. The only base runner was when Holt Davis (Alabama-Birmingham) drew a walk in the third.
The Twins grabbed the go-ahead and insurance runs in their next at-bat in the seventh inning. Calvin Woolhiser (St. John Fisher) drove in the go-ahead run, scoring Tre Edwards (Murray State) with a RBI single. Woolhiser scored on Link’s RBI single and put the Twins up 5-3.
Up until this spurt, Geneva was also cold with their bats, only getting a runner as far as second in the 4th-6th innings. “We got a little lackadaisical with the bats,” Callahan said.
The Ridgemen were able to threaten in the ninth, putting runners on first and second with one out after Sullivan singled and Ruckel walked. Alex Storaci (Blue Mountain CC) pinch-hit for Holt Davis, and he grounded out to move the runners over to second and third with two outs and Alexander Mumm (Judson) at the plate. Kevin Berge (St. John Fisher) got Mumm to strike out and Berge got his second save in as many nights.
“We’re starting to put it all together now,” Link said, as his team has now won four of their last five after starting the season 0-4.
The two teams will meet again at Basket Road Wednesday night at 7:00 p.m. in the final game of a four-game set.
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