By Cameron Boon
HOUGHTON, N.Y. — Solid pitching will give you a good chance to win every game. Connor Hamilton (Cedarville) and Dustin King (Hannibal-LaGrange) proved that last week against the Wellsville Nitros. Monday night, it was Jacob Chipka (Hope) doing the job, as he held Genesee to one run on 11 hits while striking out three batters, and the Rochester Ridgemen (10-7) won their fifth game in six outings defeating the Genesee Rapids (8-11) 6-3 in an New York Collegiate Baseball League Western Division matchup at the Kerr-Pegula Sports Complex.
This was Chipka’s second win of the season, and the first time he had gone seven innings in an outing since his season debut against the Geneva Twins on June 2, also a win.
The game was scoreless until the fourth inning, when the Ridgemen put up a pair to take the lead they wouldn’t relinquish throughout the course of the game.
Holt Davis (UAB) scored Nick Wolyniec (Bergen CC) from first with an RBI single, putting Rochester on the board. Davis then scored when Trent Sullivan (MidAmerica Nazarene) rocked an RBI double in the next at-bat, making it a 2-0 game.
Genesee answered, however, in their half of the fourth. Dalton Combs (Huntington) was the provider, as he sent an RBI single to the outfield, scoring Jack LaMarca (Ohio Northern) and cutting the lead in half.
The Ridgemen proceeded to put up runs in the fifth and sixth innings to pull away.
The run in the fifth came by way of Wolyniec, as he roped a single to right, scoring Shane Soria (Glendale CC). Wolyniec had his third three-hit game of the season Monday, and his first since Rochester played these same Rapids on June 6. In three games against Genesee, the Ridgewood, NJ native, in his second season with Rochester, is 10-for-12 with four runs scored and four RBI.
The Ridgemen put up another in the sixth by way of Colton Roberts (Toccoa Falls). He clocked a 3-1 pitch over the LaMarca’s head in center field, scoring Sullivan all the way from first and making it a 4-1 Ridgemen lead.
Genesee was getting ready to answer in Chipka’s last inning, the seventh. Chaz Tanner (Virginia Wise) led off the inning with a single to center, and then with two outs Jason Euler (Mesa CC) singled to the shortstop, putting some pressure on Chipka.
Cool, calm, and collected he was, though, as he got LaMarca to pop out to Roberts at second to end the inning.
Chase Burrow’s (Mary Hardin-Baylor) ground-rule double in the eighth further widened the gap between Rochester and Genesee, as Sullivan scored his second run of the game on the play and made it 5-1.
The lead was then increased to 6-1 in the top of the ninth when Will Bass (New Mexico JC) came inches from a home run in right, but settled for a ground-rule double. This scored Santana from second.
Jackson Sigman (Glendale CC), who came on for Chipka in the eighth, ran into a little bit of trouble as Genesee put runners on first and second with two outs. Sigman got out of the jam, though, striking out Tanner to end the inning.
Brian Epstein (Clarendon) came on in the ninth to close it out for the Ridgemen, but ran into a little trouble. Euler crushed a pitch from Epstein, but it had just enough to stay in the ballpark in Houghton, and turned into a sacrifice fly that scored Tony Schultz (Northwestern College) from third.
Andrew Bonnette (Walsh) then made it 6-3 Ridgemen when he scored on an infield hit by LaMarca, and an error by Epstein allowed LaMarca to advance to second.
After Epstein hit Enrico Sukhdeo (Houghton), Brady James decided that was enough as he brought on the closer Roberts.
Roberts retired the final two batters of the game, inducing Kellen Creech (Ave Maria) into a fly out to right, and getting Combs to fan on a 1-2 pitch for the strikeout.
Schultz finished 3-for-4 in the game and in the process increased his hitting streak to eight games. LaMarca finished 3-for-5 and he has now recorded a hit in five of his last six games.
Sullivan was the only other player besides Wolyniec to record a multi-hit game for Rochester, as he went 2-for-4. Sullivan recorded his first hit since June 12, when he went 1-for-4 against the Niagara Power.
The same two teams meet again at the Kerr-Pegula Complex (home of the 2014 NYCBL All-Star Game) on Tuesday. A 7 p.m. first pitch is again scheduled.
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