By Cameron Boon
GENEVA, N.Y. — In a winner-take-all game of a playoff series, fast starts are the difference between moving to the next round, and packing your bags to go home. The Geneva Twins utilized the long ball in their fast start.
Mike Annone (Wilmington) and Connor Simonetti (Kent State) launched back-to-back bombs in the bottom of the first as the Twins put up five in their opening frame and did not look back winning game three of the New York Collegiate Baseball League Western Divisional Series 7-1, Tuesday night at McDonough Park.
Simonetti also sent one over the right field wall in the third inning for his third multi-RBI game in his 12 appearances with the Twins this season.
“Yesterday I had a bad day, so today I just wanted to clear my mind and let my abilities take over,” he said.
The middle hitters, Sean Feeney (Wilmington), Annone, and Simonetti, did most of the damage for the Twins. They went 5-for-11, scoring four runs and driving in six.
“We wanted to come out and make a statement,” Simonetti said.
They made a huge statement in that first inning that pushed them into the next round.
It began with Feeney, as he laced a single to left center, allowing Zach Goldstein (Southern New Hampshire) and Fernando Garcia (Murray State) to score and give Geneva the early 2-0 lead against Rochester starter Jake Chipka (Hope).
“They had a plan of attack of what they wanted to do and executed it,” Rochester manager Brady James said.
With a runner on first, the first of the three bombs went off. Annone sent a 2-0 pitch over the right field wall, making it 4-0. Simonetti’s home run, which would be his third of the season, made it 5-0.
“We’ve done it so many times this year and it’s becoming what we do,” Geneva manager Nick Callahan said.
The Ridgemen tried to chip away, starting in the second. Case Smith (Baylor), who has come around at the end of the season after a very slow start, drove in Andy Santana (Geneva) from second to make it 5-1. The throw from Garcia in center was right on target, but Santana reached his arm around the glove of the catcher DJ Link (Harvard) to score the run.
“You can chip back, but a 5-0 hole is a tough blow in a game three,” James said.
The Ridgemen were not able to keep the momentum, as that would be the only run the offense could produce all night. Even with eight hits, Rochester wasn’t able to drive them in, as Geneva’s starter, Jake Shields (Case Western Reserve), did a great job after allowing the runners on to keep them there.
“He’s the type of guy you want on the field for a game three,” Callahan said. “He doesn’t care how many baserunners reach as long as he gets three outs before they score.”
The Ridgemen would only get three runners into scoring position after this point, and were not able to cash any of them.
“We couldn’t get that big, key hit,” James said.
Simonetti got the run back in the bottom of the third, when he sent his second home run just over the right field wall to make it a 6-1 Geneva lead.
Janson Borque (LSU at Eunice) would finish the scoring in the sixth. He touched home on Goldstein’s single to make it 7-1 Twins.
The Twins pitching staff would only surrender one hit the rest of the way, and ironically enough, it was to pitcher Jackson Sigman (Glendale CC), as Rochester was down to so few players.
This was Sigman’s first at-bat since his senior year of high school, and he hit a 0-1 pitch from Kevin Berge (St. John Fisher) hard to right field like he had never stopped batting.
Even with the result, Rochester has nothing to be ashamed of as a whole on their season. They established a new franchise record for wins in a season (28), and clinched only the second playoff spot in franchise history. The first being in 2009 when the Alfred Oilers advanced to the West Division Championship, losing to Hornell.
“We have a great group of guys, both on and off the field,” James said. “If they can take the off the field stuff (bible studies, discipleships, etc) with them, they’ll be successful because they are already great baseball players.”
The Geneva Twins are still playing baseball, however. They will have a day off tomorrow, before facing the winner of the Hornell Dodgers and the Niagara Power in game one of the Western Championship Series Thursday night.
“We know we’re ready now (for Hornell) to take on that number one team,” Simonetti said.
Simonetti has recorded a hit in every game but two of the 12 he has played. The Fairport, N.Y. was drafted in the 35th round by the Cincinnati Reds, but decided to go the college route. He added a single and finished the day 3-4 with two RBI off those two solo shots.
If the Power do pull the upset, Callahan says the approach is still the same.
“If we make sure that the hitters are doing the same thing every day and staying consistent, we’ll be good,” he said.
First pitch will most likely be scheduled for 7:00 p.m. Thursday night. If the Dodgers win, it will be down at Maple City Park. If the Power pull it off, the game will be at McDonough Park.
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