By Brianna Case
SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Ryan Roman (St. John Fisher) scampered home with the game winner, and the Syracuse Salt Cats closed their regular season home slate with a 5-4 victory over the Oneonta Outlaws in New York Collegiate Baseball League action at Onondaga Community College, Friday.
“We were in a battle with these guys all season long,” said Salt Cat head coach Mike Martinez. “It’s a good feeling; the guys are playing good baseball now.”
Roman led the ninth with a base on balls and came around to score on a Cody LaBadia (Southern Vermont) sacrifice fly.
“I know what this level of baseball brings,” Martinez added. “It could be a 0-0 in the first game or a 4-4 in the bottom of the ninth. Somebody has to win and we came out with a run and we won.”
Julian Bilodeau (Franklin Pierce) moved the runner with a sacrifice bunt before Oneonta reliever Jimmy Hand (Northeastern) loaded the bases when he issued back-to-back walks to Anthony Massicci (Canisius) and Anthony Morino (Mt. Union).
Syracuse jumped to a 3-0 lead in the first. Morino reached with a one-out single, and Massicci followed with a double. LaBadia brought home the first run of the game with a sacrifice fly. Tom Nagy (Bentley) plated Massicci with a triple, and Jon Borchert (Keuka) capped the inning with an RBI single. The Salt Cats led 3-0.
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Oneonta tallied three in the second. Hand walked. Matt Pelt (Wofford) reached on an error, and Kyle Brennan (University of Buffalo) cleared the bases with a triple. Brennan eventually scored an unearned run.
Bilodeau gave Syracuse a 4-3 lead in the sixth with an RBI single scoring Ben Sawyer (Alvernia).
Oneonta rallied in the eighth when Tyler Martis (Siena) singled and eventually scored on an error.
Cory Fox (Adrian) tossed one inning in relief for the win. The southpaw struck out the side in the ninth.
“This is good for us going in the playoffs,” Fox said. “My fastball was working tonight, I like to kill with my fastball, and just throw a lot of strikes with that and throw them off balance.”
Nagy paced the Cats with three hits and RBI and a run scored. Morino and Sawyer added two hits apiece for the home team.
Yaniel Delgado (Benedict) allowed three runs on four hits and a walk over seven complete. The right-hander set down eight on punch outs.
Martis collected two hits for Oneonta.
Syracuse (23-22) closes the season at Sherrill (22-23) on Saturday. The winner takes third place in the NYCBL’s Eastern Division. Sherrill leads the season 5-2 and holds the tiebreaker.
Oneonta (27-19) finishes in second place. The Outlaws will play the winner of Saturday’s matchup in the first round of the playoffs.
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