Uher’s pitching leads Rapids past Oilers

By Cameron Boon

HOUGHTON, N.Y. — After a long night in Rochester, driving 125 miles back to Olean after midnight, and having a road game the next day, needless to say it would be tough for the Olean Oilers to pull out a W in this one. Zachary Uher (Baruch) didn’t help, as he went a complete game, dealing eight scoreless after giving up a run in the first, and striking out 11 as the Genesee Rapids defeated the Olean Oilers 6-1 in New York Collegiate Baseball League action at the Kerr-Pegula Athletics Complex, Friday night.

The Freeport, NY native is now 4-3 on the season and has struck out a league-leading 47 batters.

Mark Lepri (Aquinas) drove in the lone Olean run in the top of the first, when his single found a hole up the middle. Ryan Kohlhofer (Defiance) scored easily from third on the play to make it 1-0.

Genesee would rattle off six unanswered, scoring a pair in the third, one in the fifth, and then icing it with a trio of runs in the eighth.

Tony Schultz (Northwestern) plated the tying run, Nathan Stanley (Clearwater Christian), with a sacrifice fly. The Rapids then took the lead they wouldn’t relinquish when the next batter, Andrew Bonnette (Walsh), who drove in the winning run in the All-Star Game, scored Michael Kerr (Houghton) with a single.

Kellen Creech’s (Ave Maria) single to right scored Jack LaMarca (Ohio Northern) in the bottom half of the fifth, and the lead was 3-1.

After that first inning, Uher only allowed four hits the rest of the game. But that didn’t stop Olean from putting runners on, as the Rapids committed a pair of errors and the Oilers put a runner on in every inning except for the sixth. They just could not bring them around to score.

The Rapids had no problem scoring, especially in the eighth inning when they iced the game with three.

Jason Euler (Mesa CC) drew a bases loaded walk, scoring Kerr from third to make it 4-1. Creech then drove in his second run of the game with another RBI single, but this time it was Bonnette touching home. Riley Roberts (Fullerton) then drew a bases loaded walk from Noah Raspler (SUNY Oneonta), who struggled in the inning, and that plated LaMarca to make it 6-1 Rapids.

The Rapids (15-18) and Oilers (10-20) meet again Saturday night, as Olean will look for redemption, and Genesee will look to keep pace with Niagara, who has a 1.5 game lead on them for the fourth and final playoff spot in the West.