By Nate Discavage
ONEONTA, N.Y. — The Sherrill Silversmiths and Oneonta Outlaws entered Tuesday’s game trending in opposite directions. Sherrill had won eight straight games while Oneonta had dropped its last three.
In a game marred with defensive struggles, Sherrill emerged with a 7-4 victory in New York Collegiate Baseball League action at Damaschke Field.
Starting pitcher Cody Tolbert (Fort Scott Community College) led the Silversmiths earning his second win of the season (2-1). He pitched eight strong innings, gave up only two earned runs, and surrendered six hits. He lowered his ERA on the season to 2.11.
Jeremy Roberts (Stonehill College) gave the Outlaws six innings and struck out six. Roberts also only allowed two earned runs.
Sherrill and Oneonta combined for five errors. Ben Mauseth (Grand Canyon University) allowed back-to-back ground balls to scoot between his legs in a Billy Buckner-like fashion during the fourth inning, leading to three unearned runs.
With Sherrill carrying a 5-2 lead, back-to-back dropped two-out pop flies by Kellen Brown (Florida Atlantic University) and Reid Neil (Florida Atlantic University) gave the Outlaws their third and fourth runs in the sixth.
Despite the miscues, there were two highlight plays on the field. The first came in the fifth when Ramon Osuna Sanchez (College of Charleston) made a diving catch on an Ellington Hopkins (Monroe Community College) line drive to rob him of a hit; the second came in the eighth. Left fielder David Wright (SUNY Oneonta) ran from left into the end of foul territory to lay out and make a spectacular diving catch. He extended his body completely and was just barely able to hang on.
Both teams were startled in the top of the ninth when a throw down to third appeared to hit Dan Fickas (University of South Carolina-Upstate) in the face. Fickas collapsed before being able to walk off the field under his own power. Head coach Joe Hughes informed everybody after the game that Fickas was okay and was not hit in the face.
“When it first happened, I thought it was the cheek or nose, and we were going to see a lot of blood,” Hughes said. But after closer examination, he realized, “it got him in the side of the head and deflected off the runner first so it took some of the sting out of the ball.”
Taylor Jones (North Georgia University) led both teams offensively. Jones went 3-4 with a triple, RBI, run, and steal of home.
Nicholas Duarte (Siena College) paced Sherrill driving in two runs. Brown collected two hits for the visitors.
Sherrill coach Greg Dombrowski gave credit to his starting pitchers for helping the Silversmiths win nine straight games. Sherrill pitchers have a combined 2.21 ERA on the season and a 1.31 ERA in the last seven days.
Oneonta (4-4) travels to Syracuse tomorrow to play the Salt Cats (8-8). The Silversmiths (11-4) have an off day before hosting the Syracuse JR Chiefs (4-10) on Thursday.
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