By Cameron Boon
WEBSTER, N.Y. — The Rochester Ridgemen started hot on Sunday afternoon, scoring four in the bottom of the first and then taking on one in the second. Add that with solid pitching from Casey Whittle (Union) to keep the Niagara Power bats at bay, and the Ridgemen trimmed their magic number to one for their first playoff spot since 2009 with a 5-3 victory over Niagara in New York Collegiate Baseball League action at Basket Road Field.
Whittle, after starting shaky by allowing two runs in the top of the first, finished strong over six innings. He shut the Power out for the final six, allowing a total of six hits and walking two while striking out three for his fourth win of the season.
“He pitched really well for us tonight,” Rochester manager Brady James said.
Niagara starter Blake Hohlbein (Huntington) also came back strong after early troubles, but dug himself a bigger hole. He allowed five runs on five hits while walking four and striking out four in his first losing effort of the season.
The Power started hot, putting up a pair in the first for an early 2-0 lead. With Caleb Lang (Philadelphia Biblical) at the plate, Ivan Acuna (Catawba Valley CC) and AJ Hammond (Millersville) executed a double steal, and with Ruckel’s throw going over second and into center, Acuna was able to draw first blood for Niagara and put them up 1-0.
Hammond then advanced to third on Lang’s single, and then Ryan Wagley’s (Arlington Baptist) sacrifice fly scored the first baseman to make it 2-0 before the Ridgemen could even swing a bat.
But when they did swing a bat, they got hot fast.
“We weren’t overanxious and just took what the game gave us,” James said.
What the game gave them was four runs on three hits to double up the Power’s run total.
Garrett Ruckel (Jacksonville) got the party started, as he grounded a ball through the right side of the infield, scoring Shane Soria (Glendale CC) and Nick Wolyniec (Bergen CC) to tie the game at two with one swing.
Alex Mumm (Judson) then gave Rochester a lead they wouldn’t relinquish. He grounded out to shortstop, but the slow roller allowed Ethan Luna (Southwestern) to score from third and make it a 3-2 Ridgemen lead.
Ruckel then came around to score on Larry Vidaurre’s (Nyack) RBI single up the middle.
Chase Burrow (Mary Hardin-Baylor) led off the bottom of the second with a single. After a sacrifice bunt by Soria advanced him to second, Andy Santana (Geneva) drove him in with a single up the middle to make it 5-2 Rochester.
The sacrifice bunt by Soria was the second of three that James dialed up for the Rochester offense today.
“That isn’t always in the gameplan. That was just the pulse of the game that I felt coming in,” James said.
Though he wasn’t pitching a lot of 1-2-3 innings, Whittle seemed to never be threatened until the sixth inning.
“I really had to focus more on my mechanics,” Whittle recalled coming back out after that rough first inning.
The sixth inning turned into a pitcher’s nightmare very quickly. After a Lang single, Hammond reaching on one of four Rochester errors, and Wagley drawing a walk, the bases were loaded and nobody out for Niagara looking to cut into it’s 5-2 deficit.
“You’re always going to be put in situations that will test you,” Whittle explained. “The weak will succumb to it. I took that as a challenge to see how good I could be.”
Challenge accepted and passed, as the Danville, Kentucky native walked off the mound unscathed.
Jack Trotman (UMass-Lowell) struck out swinging for the first out. Whittle then got Jarrett James (Ball State) to fly out to center, and then Soria showed off the all-star arm strength. He caught the ball and gunned it home to Ruckel, who made the easy tag on Hammond for the double play to end the inning.
The Power weren’t going down after this missed opportunity though.
“We’ve battled back so many times so are team doesn’t really get deflated,” Niagara manager Josh Rebandt said.
They were able to make it interesting in the ninth inning against Rochester closer Colton Roberts (Toccoa Falls).
After Michael Crowley (Huntington) started the inning with a bloop double that found no-man’s land in center field, Gabriel Sevigny (Olivet Nazarene) grounded out and it looked as if Roberts was in control. That was not the case, as he walked back-to-back batters. This loaded the bases for the heart of the Niagara lineup.
Hammond was able to beat out a double-play ball to second base to score a run, but Lang was not able to beat out his grounder to extend the game, as Roberts earned his seventh save of the season.
The Ridgemen (24-18), three games back of second and just looking to clinch the playoffs Friday night, are now within a game of the second-place Geneva Twins (24-16) and home-field advantage in the first round of the NYCBL playoffs, which start a week from Sunday. With the magic number down to one, Rochester will look to clinch with a win Monday night in front of their home crowd at The Basket against the Olean Oilers (13-24). First pitch there is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.
“We just need to take care of what we can take care of,” James said about his team scoreboard watching.
The Power (20-20) are now in a bit of a predicament, as the Genesee Rapids (20-22) are right on their tail. Genesee is now only a game back of them with four games left, and the Power have six. Niagara will look to distance themselves a little bit Tuesday night when they play at McDonough Park against the Twins at 7:00 p.m.
“It’s just a matter of taking care of our own business,” Rebandt said about the playoff race that is all of a sudden, heating up in the Western Division.
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