By Andrew Grella
GENEVA, N.Y. — The Geneva Red Wings and Cortland Crush split a double header in New York Collegiate Baseball League action at McDonough Park, Thursday night. The Crush took the first game while the Red Wings shut out the Crush to take the nightcap.
Cortland won a low-scoring affair in the first game completing a two-run comeback in the final inning to top the Wings 2-1.The Wings rode the shoulders of starter Jason Meger (North Park U) to shut out the Crush 5-0 to take game two.
After three scoreless innings to open the first game, the Wings broke the tie by plating a run in the bottom of the fourth as Clay Sebesky (Kutztown U) was hit by a pitch to force in Julio Nunez (Alabama A&M).
But the Crush took advantage of the Wings starter Tyler Fletcher (Charleston) who tried to pitch a complete game only holding a 1-0 lead. After putting the first two runners on in the inning, Fletcher was replaced by Andrew Mercer (Southern Indiana). Mercer surrenedered a single to Henry Pelliciotti (Broome CC) and a sacrifice fly to Conner Griffin (SUNY Cortland) to give the Crush a 2-1 lead with only three outs for the Wings to catch up.
Geneva put two runners on in the bottom of the seventh but were unable to score as Greg Jasek (Clarkson U), who had a pinch hit single to score the tying run in the top of the frame, replaced Tom Taplin (Buffalo) to record his first save in the NYCBL. Taplin received the win as the Crush finished the come back to steal the first game away from Fletcher and the Red Wings.
After only three runs in the first game, game two saw more runs cross the plate, but for one side only as Geneva defeated Cortland to salvage the split. Two-out hitting was the theme for the Wings as it scored all five of its runs in three different frames, including a three-run sixth inning.
Mark Huddle (John Carroll U) had the first of his two RBI in the game in the second inning when he singled in Nunez with two outs to open up the scoring in the bottom of the second. Tommy Haas (Arkansas Pine Bluff) drove in John Cruz (Dowling) with a two-out base hit in the fourth. Cruz extended his hitting streak to seven games with a triple with one out in the frame.
But Huddle, Haas, and the Wings continued their two-out hitting plating three more insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth. Doubles by Huddle and Haas drove in two, and an error by the shortstop on a soft liner by Ricky Gorrell (Kutztown U) plated the third, fourth and fifth runs of the game giving the Wings a five-run cushion heading into the final frame.
Alex Summers (Neumann) nailed down his third save striking out the last two Cortland hitters giving the Wings their tenth win of the season. The winning pitcher in the game is Jason Meger who pitched six strong innings for the Wings. The loss goes to the Crush starter Benjamin Parkes (Ithaca) who falls to 0-3.
The Wings 8-9 hitter tandem of Huddle and Haas came up big in game two going 4-6 with two runs and two RBI. The Wings remain a game out of first place with a 10-9 record. The Crush move into fifth place with a record of 7-11 in the eastern division.
Jasek had two hits and stole a base for Cortland as did Zachary Racusin (Marist).
Theses two teams head out to Cortland Friday as the Wings take on the Crush at 7 p.m. to complete the three-game series.
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