By Jared Wicks
SYRACUSE, N.Y.—The Geneva Red Wings rode a five- run seventh inning en route to a 10-4 win over the Syracuse Jr. Chiefs on Sunday night at NBT Bank Stadium in New York Collegiate Baseball League play.
The loss drops the Jr. Chiefs to 3-7 on the season and snaps their two-game winning streak.
The win improves the Red Wings to 6-5 on the season where they sit in third place of the NYCBL Eastern Division.
“Sometimes pitchers just have one of those days.” was the sentiment expressed by Jr. Chiefs assistant coach Joe Riley when asked about Ryan Contegni’s (Ithaca College) 0.1 of an inning.
Contegni’s 0.1 of an inning in the top of the seventh was a momentum swing for the Red Wings as they scored five runs to break a 4-4 tie and put the game out of reach for Syracuse.
“You play every night like it’s your last, but you have a bunch of games ahead of you.” Is the approach George Schaefer said his Wings take when they hit the field.
Geneva’s John Cruz (Dowling Col) jumped on the first pitch of the ball game and sent it to right centerfield for a leadoff triple. Cruz scored just three pitches later on a Sam Kim (Hawaii Hilo) sacrifice fly to put the Red Wings up 1-0.
Cruz only had a 1-4 day but managed to still reach base two other times and score two of the Red Wings runs.
Kim also had a big day driving in one and hitting two doubles for Geneva
Tanner Whiteman (Onondaga CC) didn’t give up any more runs until the fifth inning and gave up only two earned runs total in his first start of the season for the Jr. Chiefs.
“I was throwing harder, but I wasn’t filling up the zone and getting too deep into counts.” Whiteman remarked about how he felt his evening went.
Overall though Whiteman was happy with his first starting performance of the season after two appearances out of the bullpen where he posted a 0.00 ERA in 5.2 IP.
Whiteman said the big difference from reliever to starter is “warm up routine” which helps “When you know you are going to pitch over IF you are going to pitch.”
The offensive bright spot for the J-Chiefs today and all weekend has been Matt McCann (Fairleigh Dickinson) who went 3-4 including getting the first hit of the game for Syracuse and scoring.
Three straight hits in the third inning for Syracuse by McCann, Gabe Levanti (Northeastern) and Nate Stemle (Kentucky Wesleyan Col) helped put the Chiefs up 2-1
The next inning Cooper Belyea (Ithaca College) reached when he was hit by a pitch. Mark Martin (Bryant U) followed with a double to score Belyea. Ryan Roman (Concordia Col) then hit a single to score Martin and after four innings the ‘Chiefs led 4-1.
The Red Wings Andrew Utterback (Alabama A&M) hit a sacrifice fly to center to score Tommy Haas (Arkansas Pine Bluff) as one of two RBI on the day to cut the lead to 4-2 in the top of the fifth inning.
Cruz, who led off the inning for Geneva with a walk, scored on an error to make it 4-3.
In the sixth, Whitman got two quick outs before Geneva’s Mark Huddle (John Carroll U) hit a double to left and then scored two pitches later on a Haas single to knot the game at four.
Red Wings pitcher Samuel Tinkham (Grinnell Col) left the game only one out into the bottom of the sixth with the game still tied and made way for Jalen Burks (Neumann Col) who got the final two outs of the inning and then watched his teammates make a winner out of him with an offensive outburst.
John Bednarek (St Thomas Aquinas Col) threw only four pitches to record an out in the lefty on lefty match up with Cruz to start the seventh before making way for Contegni, and the mess that followed.
The Red Wings batted exactly two through nine in their order following Contegni’s entrance. Contegni’s only out of the night was Julio Nuñez (Alabama A&M ) on a pop fly to center but faced six batters before giving the ball to Kevin Neumann (Seton Hill) who recorded the final out two batters later.
Clay Sebesky (Kutztown U) led off the top of the ninth with a single, advanced to second on a walk and then scored on a single by Huddle to cap the Red Wings total at 10 runs.
Alex Summers (Neumann Col) saw five Jr. Chiefs in the ninth but let no runners past second base to finish off a 10-4 win for Geneva.
Contegni’s 0.1 inning made him the losing pitcher after giving up five runs and inflated his ERA to 4.76
Burks was the winning pitcher facing the minimum in 1.2 innings pitched and striking out one.
Paul Henshaw (Kenyon Col) (0-2) will take the mound tomorrow for Syracuse (4-7) as they hit to road to face the Silversmiths (9-4) of Sherrill at 5p.m.
Tyler Fletcher (College of Charleston) (1-1) will get the start for Geneva (6-5) as they continue their road trip at Cortland to face the Crush (2-5). First pitch is at 7 p.m.
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