By Jared Wicks
SYRACUSE, N.Y.— The Syracuse Jr. Chiefs outslugged the Cortland Crush 9-7 Sunday afternoon at Onondaga Community College to take the weekend series in New York Collegiate Baseball League Play.
“We’ve seen their guys a few days in a row including guys out of their bullpen,” Syracuse Jr. Chiefs’ manager Chris Haynes said after the game when asked about the team’s offensive outburst after scoring only four runs in the last two games. “We had the opportunity to jump on their bullpen which was nice.”
Brian Dudek (University of Buffalo) was the J-Chiefs first base runner after being walked on five pitches; he advanced to second on a passed ball and scored the first run of the game on a single by his college teammate at Buffalo Vinnie Mallaro.
The run was just one of four scored today by Dudek, a day in which he went 3-for-3, his best day offensively so far.
Mallaro has also continued to be hot as well going 3-for-4 today, with four RBI, scoring one run. He reached third base twice outside his run scored and second on his other base appearance.
“He’s a great guy to have up in the middle of the lineup.” Haynes said about Mallaro. “Hopefully we have guys on base for him to drive home and score runs.”
Crush manager Bill McConnell talked about his approach to Mallaro.
“You try to pitch to your strengths and get him to hit in the air, but he did a good job in this series.”
Cortland took their only lead of the game with a tw0-run second inning after leadoff batter Christopher Kwitzer (University of Buffalo) reached on an error, stole second base, advanced to third on single by Joel Brophy (Niagara U) and scored on a Sean McCoy (Pomono-Pitzer) ground out.
Brophy later in the inning came around to score the second run.
But the Jr. Chiefs came right back in the bottom of the inning and never looked back.
Brian Burns (Ithaca College) ledoff the second with a four-pitch walk. Burns was walked on his first three at bats (four times overall) and saw 14 straight balls in the game before seeing a strike on the 15th pitch to him in the sixth. He saw 18 balls on the day to two strikes.
”He’s (Burns) always got a good eye,” Haynes said. “He was doing anything to get on base and that’s what he did.”
McConnell said after the game they were not trying to pitch around Burns.
“He’s a great hitter and I know of him from Ithaca, seen his program,” McConnell said. “We did try to go at him a few times…but no.” McConnell said.
After Burns’s leadoff walk in the second, Carlos Tapia (Siena College) and Matthew Kozuch (Fordham U) singled. Burns scored when Ryan Roman (Concordia College) reached on a fielder’s choice.
An error on that same play by the shortstop allowed Tapia to score and give the J-Chiefs the lead.
That was enough to make Keith Ryan (Keuka College) the losing pitcher (0-1) in just 2.1 innings of work with one strike out and four walks. After leaving in the third he was eventually charged with five runs (three earned)
John Bednarek (St Thomas Aquinas College) (1-1) picked up the win. The left-hander allowed one and struck out eight batters without a walk in four innings of relief work.
“He (Bednarek) made a spot start last week against Sherrill and I thought he did great,” Haynes said. “I knew once he was ready to go he could go a couple innings and keep us in a ballgame.”
Kevin Neumann (Seton Hill) came on the in the seventh, and the Crush mounted the comeback off him.
The Crush rallied thanks to leadoff walks to Zephan Kash (Mansfield U ) and Connor Dwyer (Saginaw Valley State) which led to three runs overall and cut the deficit to 8-6 before Neumann was relieved after only 0.2 innings of work.
Ryan Contegni (Ithaca College) threw one pitch to get out the seventh and preserve the lead.
Zephan Kash (Mansfield) cut the lead to one off Jr. Chiefs reliever Thomas Eng (Adrian College) with the Crush’s first home run of the season on a towering ball to right.
Luke Emling (Villanova U) drove in one of Dudek’s four runs in the bottom of the eighth to give the J-Chiefs some insurance and Eng closed the door after five batters in the ninth to preserve the save and win for Syracuse.
Kwitzer reached base twice and scored a run.
Crush leadoff batter Geoffrey Seto (Niagara U) went 3-for-5 reaching base four times.
Zachary Racusin (Essex CC) came in to pinch hit in the seventh going 2-for-2 and scoring once.
For Syracuse, Gabe Levanti (Northeastern) went 2-for-3 on the day with two doubles.
Handshakes and good feelings were shared following the finale of the two team’s three game series that saw a lot of tension on the ball field, especially in the last two games.
The series saw a total of 15 hit by pitches with nine Sunday alone. A hard slide into home by Levanti in the bottom of the fifth inning sparked a bench clearing scrum.
Haynes felt after the weekend set with Cortland and fifth inning incident that “definitely” team unity was gained.
The J-Chiefs improve to 7-12 on the season while the Crush falls to 6-9.
The Crush will travel to Oneonta tomorrow for 7 p.m. match up with the Outlaws (7-7), while Syracuse will take tomorrow off before traveling to Oneonta themselves on Tuesday.
Leave a Reply