By Jared Wicks
SYRACUSE, N.Y.—The Syracuse Salt Cats scored four runs in the bottom of the first inning and outlasted the Geneva Red Wings 9-6 at Onondaga Stadium in New York Collegiate Baseball League play Saturday.
After a 1-2-3 top of the first for Yaniel Delgado (Benedict College), the ‘Cats didn’t wait long to start the scoring.
The second batter of the game for Syracuse was Anthony Morino (Mt Union) and on the fourth pitch he saw, he lined it to right for a triple.
Cody LaBadia (Southern Vermont College) singled two batters later to bring home Morino for the first run of the game.
The Salt Cats went on the score four runs on two hits in the bottom of the first to jump out in front.
Geneva took back two runs thanks to one of Andrew Utterback’s (Alabama A&M) three singles on the day. Utterback reached third on every hit including scoring on two.
But the day belonged to Morino and the Salt Cats. Morino went 3-5 with a triple, a double and single, only a home run shy of the cycle.
“Anthony sees everything, he hits fastballs well,” Salt Cats Mike Martinez said. “He adjusts on curveballs…he’s a .400 hitter in the spring and he’s a real solid college baseball player.”
“He knows how to play baseball, he sees got good reads and he puts good swings on them.”
Morino’s cycle would have been the first in Syracuse Salt Cats history dating back to 2010.
“We had a soft lefty and I was trying to go the other way with it and lucky it found a hole.” Morino said about his approach this afternoon against Redwings LHP Bret Viola (Stevens Institute of Tech)
Viola takes the loss (0-1) in his third appearance against the Salt Cats in his longest outing of the season. Viola went three innings giving up five runs on, five hits and four walks.
Delgado gets the win (2-2) despite giving up 11 hits in 4.1 innings and allowing five runs (four earned) bring his ERA up to 5.60
“He’s a high tendency pitcher,” Martinez noted. “He likes to keep balls in the zones. Even when he’s not getting the calls he wants to keep throwing in the zones…today was a little off for him but overall he pitched very well.”
Delgado finished with five strike outs bringing him up to 17 in 17.2 innings pitched.
Cory Craig (California U of Pennsylvania) relieved Delgado for 3.0 innings putting out the first eight batters he faced.
Craig got into a jam in the eighth and was relieved by Cory Fox (Adrian College) but in overall only gave up one run on two hits and struck out three.
Fox got the save in his 1.1 innings of work putting out all four batters he faced.
Geneva’s Travis Kreitz (Kutztown College) went 2-for-5 with a run scored. Julio Nuñez (Alabama A&M) and Mike Osinski (Longwood University) both rapped two hits in four trips and scored a run scored.
Anthony Massicci (Canisius College) reached base three timesfor the Salt Cats thanks to two walks and one hit. He scored twice.
The Salt Cats improved to .500 on the season at 10-10 while the Red Wings fell to .500 at 8-8
One team will fall below .500 and one team will rise above as they play a rematch tomorrow night at Onondaga Stadium with first pitch scheduled for 7:00pm
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