By Jared Wicks
SYRACUSE, N.Y. — A costly eighth-inning error by Sherrill helped the Syracuse Jr. Chiefs score the game winning run en route to a 3-2 win over the Silversmiths in New York Collegiate Baseball league play at Onondaga Community College, Saturday night.
Jr. Chiefs pinch hitter Ryan Roman (Concordia College) advanced to first and took second on a throwing error by Silversmiths third baseman Ellington Hopkins (Monroe CC) to lead off the bottom of the eighth with the score knotted at two.
Matt McCann (Fairleigh Dickinson) and Gabe Levanti (Northeastern U) both followed with singles to bring Roman home and put the J-Chiefs in front to stay 3-2
The bottom of the eighth made a winner out of John Bednarek (St Thomas Aquinas) after he surrendered a game-tying RBI single in the top half of the inning to Silversmiths Reid Neal (Florida Atlantic U). Hopkins scored on the play.
Jack McClure (St Bonaventure) got the loss (1-3) despite pitching a complete game and taking a no hitter into the fifth.
McClure allowed one earned run on four hits. The southpaw fanned six and walked none.
“Just hitting my spots,” McClure said about his strengths on the night in which he pitched a complete game. “My fastball, it seemed they couldn’t do anything with that.”
The Jr. Chiefs couldn’t generate any offense until the fifth inning when Brian Dudek (University of Buffalo) led off the inning with a single. A throwing error by Hopkins let Michael Lanza (Bryant U) advance to first and then take second as well as move Dudek up to third.
Two wild pitches with Matthew Kozuch (Fordham U) batting scored both Dudek and Lanza to give Syracuse a 2-1 lead.
Giving up only a first-inning run, Iannick Remillard (Canisus College) pitched seven solid innings allowing six hits and striking out four.
“He throws a lot of strikes and gets ahead of guys,k” Jr. Chiefs head coach Chris Haynes said of Remillard’s play. “He controls the game when he’s in there.”
Tommy Eng (Adrian) worked a scoreless ninth for the save. The right-hander struck out one for his eighth save of the season.
Despite beating some of the best teams in the NYCBL the Jr. Chiefs sit at only 10-20 on the season, eight games out of first.
“Consistency,” Haynes noted for his team’s struggles. “Some innings we will score four, five, six runs and others we will go (down) one, two, three for five innings in a row.”
One of the ‘Chiefs calling cards on the season is coming alive against opponent’s bullpens, something they never got a chance to do tonight and still picked up the victory.
“Seeing (McClure) a second and third time helped us” said Haynes. “The more comfortable our batters got the better at bats we had.”
Kellen Brown (Florida Atlantic U) went 2-for-2 with a double for the Silversmiths. Brown’s college teammate Reid Neil went 2-for-3 with an RBI.
The Chiefs (10-20) will face the Silversmiths (14-15) in a rematch Sunday afternoon in Syracuse. A 4:00 p.m first pitch is slated at NBT Bank Stadium the home of the Triple-A Syracuse Chiefs.
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