By Paul Gotham
GENEVA, N.Y. — Brandon Sandoval (Vanguard) knows how to produce.
In 45 regular season games, the Hornell Dodgers outfielder scored 50 runs and drove in another 34. Friday night at McDonough Park it was Sandoval’s turn again. This time it wasn’t so conventional.
Carlos Olavarria (Concordia) scampered home as Hornell defeated the Geneva Twins in extra innings, 3-2 in the New York Collegiate Baseball League Western Division Championship Series.
What started as a potential inning-ending double play turned into the series-clinching run.
With runners on first and second, Sandoval slashed at a 1-1 offering from Kevin Berge (St. John Fisher). The Twins reliever fielded the come-backer on one hop and wheeled to make the throw to second for the force out. In the exchange from glove to bare hand, Berge lost his grip on the ball. He recovered but sent the rushed throw into right-center field. Olavarria rounded third and easily scored.
“He’s the kind of pitcher who likes to get in on guys,” Sandoval said when asked about his final at bat of the game. “I fouled one off my leg, and I knew he was going to try and get back in on me. I was just able to get the barrel on the ball. I hit it hard enough to where he kinda freaked out. He had to rush and make a play. It ended up going our way in the end.”
Jeff Beall (Urbana) retired the Twins in the bottom of the inning to clinch Hornell’s second consecutive appearance in the NYCBL finals.
The game played out like the pitching duel it was billed to be. Hornell’s Jordan Accetta (Wofford) and Geneva’s Dave Anderson (Muhlenberg) matching each other out for out.
Accetta (9-0, 1.78) established a new NYCBL single-season high winning nine regular season games. Anderson (8-0, 0.97) also topped the old mark of seven. Both starters won their only other post-season outing.
“It felt good,” Accetta commented. “It’s fun. All day yesterday I was just thinking it was going to be fun, a pitcher’s duel. Which it was. I just like the competition and having to push myself to be better than someone else.”
The Hornell ace allowed both runs on six hits and three walks. He struck out seven – three punch outs occurred as he retired seven straight from the second to the fourth.
“I mixed a little bit more today,” Accetta explained. “Mixed in my off speed a little bit more. Once I got ahead I could mix in and out and play with them. That helped out a lot.”
Anderson allowed two runs on three hits and one walk over seven innings. He issued his only free pass with two outs in the third as Jake Kenney (SUNY Brockport) worked a full count base on balls.
Jimmy Latona (Monroe CC) followed with a two-run blast over the wall in left-center field.
“I just tip my cap,” Anderson said of the home run. “It was where I wanted it – low and out. I don’t know how he got it. It was just a great piece of hitting.”
It was Latona’s second home run of the post-season and fourth this summer.
“In my first at bat he got me to hit a weak ground ball to second base,” Latona noted. “The first pitch fastball was away, and I let it go. The next pitch that I hit was a change-up. I got a good piece on it.”
Geneva cut the lead in half in the fourth.
Sean Feeney (Wilmington) got the Twins on the board with a one-out RBI double to right-center field. It was the first of two RBI doubles on the night for the Geneva outfielder.
Fernando Garcia (Murray State College) scored on the play.
Hornell threatened in the seventh when Spencer Scorza (Cornell) reached on a leadoff hit by pitch. Connor Lewis (Monroe CC) followed with a sacrifice bunt that hugged the first baseline. The ball appeared to be going foul when it changed direction. The fleet-footed Lewis looked destined for a base hit when Anderson quickly barehanded the ball and fired to Jason Ibrahim (Arkansas Pine Bluff) for the out. Anderson retired the next two batters on ground outs.
The score remained 2-1 until Feeney struck again.
The Geneva outfielder fouled off five in a 10-pitch at bat before connecting on an inside-out swing and sending a shot down the left field line.
“Everything he threw I was able to battle off until I got my pitch and try and put a piece on it,” Feeney explained. “I was just trying to go down fighting. Whatever was thrown I was going to put a bat on the ball.”
Michael Konyesni (Mt. Union) started the stanza with a base on balls. Jason Borque (Louisiana St.-Eunice) moved the runner with a sacrifice bunt. The Twins could have scored more. Garcia sent a sinking line drive to right center, but a charging Sandoval made a sliding catch.
Feeney finished with three multi-hit performances in five post-season games and five in his last ten games.
“Sean’s really gotten hot,” Geneva coach Nick Callahan commented. “That’s why we had to put him in the four-hole. He just would not let us put him anywhere else. It seemed like every time we put him in the four-hole he hit a double or a home run.”
Accetta ended the threat getting a fly ball to center – his 132nd pitch of the game.
“I wasn’t coming out,” Accetta stated. “I didn’t want to come out. I felt good still. My arm felt good.”
The right-hander threw 76 pitches for strikes.
“I’ve taken care of guys arms all year, but we’re at a point where guys gotta go,” Hornell coach Tom Kenney said. “It’s about the seventh inning, and he’s getting up there (in pitch count). The kid keeping the chart is looking at you, ‘coach he’s at a hundred.’ I said to my pitching coach ‘you wanna go out there and take him out?’ I got a commitment to his heart. As long as he wants to be in there, and we got a lead, he’s not coming out.”
Accetta made 11 starts for Hornell this summer; the Dodgers won every one of those starts. Friday night was his only no-decision of the campaign.
“Hats off to Accetta and Hornell,” Feeney said. “They have had a great year.”
Anderson made 18 appearances for the Twins. The right-hander also notched four scoreless relief outings.
“That’s a fantastic baseball game.” Kenney said. “You got two guys that are absolute bulldogs, haven’t been beaten all year, butting heads on the mound. You got eight and nine-hole guys getting on and bunts getting down. Relievers coming in from both sides and getting their jobs done. That’s what a great collegiate league is about. It was a great game.”
“If you’re going to go down, that’s the way to go,” Callahan added.
Jake Marinelli (Mercyhurst) led Hornell’s 10th with a walk. Olavarria came on to pinch run. Jake Kenney executed the sacrifice bunt. Latona received an intentional pass before Sandoval reached on the decisive error.
Beall worked an inning and two-thirds for the win.
Jonah van Bemmelen (Arcadia) and John Nargoski (Iona) combined on a scoreless eighth for the Twins.
Berge took the loss allowing one run in two innings.
Hornell (38-8) set an NYCBL record for regular-season wins.
Hornell moves on to face the Oneonta Outlaws in the NYCBL Championship for the second consecutive year. Oneonta swept the 2013 series.
Zach Krivda (Penn St-Greater Allegheny) will get the start in game one for Hornell. Oneonta counters with Austin Wallace (University of Georgia).
Krivda went 4-1 in eight starts during the regular season. He finished with an ERA of 1.92. He went six and a third in Hornell’s 3-2 loss to Niagara in the WDS.
Wallace went 2-1 in eight regular season starts. He has pitched one inning in relief in the playoffs.
A 7 p.m. first pitch is scheduled Saturday at Maple City Park.
Paul Gotham is the founder, owner, editor and lead writer at Pickin’ Splinters. Paul is the Communications and Media Director of the New York Collegiate Baseball League. He is a contributor at USA Today and member of the USBWA. You can follow Paul on Twitter @PickinSplinters.
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