By Nate Discavage
ONEONTA, N.Y. — The Geneva Red Wings avenged their 5-4 loss yesterday with a 4-2 victory over the Oneonta Outlaws Sunday night at Damaschke Field in New York College Baseball League action.
Red Wings starter, Samuel Tinkham (Grinnell College) pitched seven strong innings. He allowed one earned run, only walked one batter, and struck out six. He earned his second win of the season and lower his ERA more than an entire point to 3.75.
“I came here last night and watched them,” Tinkham said. “I thought if we kept the ball low and on the outer third of the plate we’d do a lot of things.”
Andrew Mercer (University of Southern Indiana) came on in the eighth and stayed in the ninth to earn his first save of the season. He only allowed one hit over the two innings and struck out a batter.
Ethan Evanko (Grand Canyon University) took the loss for the Outlaws. Evanko allowed two runs on three hits in his two and one-third innings of work.
Casey Wenzel (Binghamton University) had a solid outing out of the bullpen shutting down Geneva in the top of the ninth and striking out a batter.
Geneva scored their first run in the second inning when defensive standout Kody Ruedisili (Wofford College) committed an uncharacteristic error dropping a catch in center field allowing a run to score.
Ruedisili made up for it in the bottom of the inning when he reached on an error. Matt Pelt (Wofford College) came across to score.
Mike Osinski (Longwood University) put the Red Wings ahead in the fifth inning with an RBI single to right field. The ball appeared to have just grazed the foul line, and the vocal Outlaws fans made sure to voice their displeasure with the umpire. Later in the inning, Jordan Haas (Arkansas Pine Bluff University) hit a bloop RBI single right over the head of Oneonta second baseman, Matt Bolger (University of Southern Alabama) to give Geneva a 3-1 lead.
The Outlaws responded in the bottom of the inning when Tyler Martis (Sienna College) lined an RBI single to center field to close the gap to 3-2.
Andrew Utterback (Alabama A&M) hit a screaming line drive up the middle that just narrowly avoided Outlaws’ pitcher Jaren Drummond (Grand Canyon University) and added an insurance run for the Red Wings.
Mark Huddle (John Carroll University) was the only batter in the game with multiple hits—two singles in the second and fifth inning.
Ben Mauseth (Grand Canyon University) stole his league leading 25th base of the night for Oneonta and is now one stolen base shy of tying fourth place for most steals in a season since 2006.
Geneva coach, George Schaefer was proud of how his team turned around from last night’s loss.
“We threw strikes, competed, and got a timely hit,” Shaefer said after his pitching staff allowed 12 walks the previous night. “We kicked the ball around a little early, but Sam Tinkham really bared down when he needed to and got the job done.”
The Outlaws left seven runners in scoring position in the loss.
“Hitting with runners in scoring position has been a problem for us,” Oneonta coach, Joe Hughes said. “Hopefully we can put the ball in play and make a little better contact in those situations.”
With the win, Geneva (12-10) tied Oneonta (11-9) for first place in the Eastern Division. Sherrill (13-11) is also tied for first. The Outlaws travel to Geneva tomorrow for game three of the series.
Leave a Reply