By Nate Discavage
ONEONTA, N.Y. — Baseball games have been known to last the longest of all the North American sports. The first pitch for game one of the New York College Baseball League Championship Series crossed home plate just after 7:00 p.m., Saturday night. The final out was recorded a little before 10:30…Sunday night.
The Hornell Dodgers outlasted a pair of rain delays, sent 13 to the plate in a decisive fourth inning and held on to defeat the Oneonta Outlaws, 8-6 in game one of the 2014 finals.
The Dodgers took advantage of four Oneonta errors and scored all eight of their runs in the fourth.
“We gave them seven outs in the inning,” Oneonta coach Joe Hughes commented. “You’re going to have a hard time winning when you do that.”
Trailing 2-0, Hank Morrison (Mercyhurst) led the inning for the Dodgers and reached on the first fielding miscue of the stanza. Spencer Scorza (Cornell) followed with a single to right field to put runners on first and second. Morrison scored when Connor Lewis (Monroe Community College) took advantage of a throwing error, and Jordan Climpson (Cameron University) tied the game at two with an RBI single to right field.
“I knew if I put it in play on the right side, a run would score,” Climpson said. “I got a curve ball to start off. It was a ball, so I figured he was coming with the fastball.”
Blake Thomas (Webster University) brought home the go-ahead run with a hard-hit ball off the glove of Outlaws second baseman, Ben Mauseth (Grand Canyon). Jake Kenney (SUNY Brockport) bunted and reached base as the throw to first sailed over the head of the first baseman, Ramon Osuna Sanchez (College of Charleston).
Jimmy Latona (Monroe Community College) delivered the first of three consecutive base hits as Hornell stretched its lead.
“There’s a lot of guys that are older on our team and more experienced,” Latona said about his team’s knack for big innings. “Whether we are down or up, we are pretty even keel about the whole thing and just go about our business.”
Brandon Sandoval (Vanguard University) singled through a drawn infield, and Thad Johnson (St. Bonaventure University) pushed Hornell’s lead to 7-2 with a base hit.
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As Morrison stepped up to the plate for the second time in the inning, a downpour began in Oneonta. He worked a 3-0 count off Joe Romero (University of Albany) before the umpires called for a second rain delay.
The tarpaulin was removed an hour and a half later and play resumed for good. Morrison returned to earn a walk before Scorza capped off the inning with a sacrifice fly to left field.
Oneonta fought its way back into the game in the top of the fifth. Osuna Sanchez and Jimmy Hand (Northeastern) hit back-to-back two-out singles. D’Agostino followed them up with a two-run single which quickly turned into a classic little league home run. The ball hit up the middle eluded the grasp of the center fielder, Sandoval, and rolled to the warning track. D’Agostino made it to third before the throw into the infield sailed over third base. He scampered home to bring the Outlaws within three at 8-5.
The Outlaws threatened once again in the top of the ninth. Carson Waln (Wofford College) hit a leadoff single and moved to second on a single by Osuna Sanchez. Two batters later, D’Agostino stepped up with two outs and hit an infield popup. Lewis dropped the ball, and Waln scored to make it 8-6, Hornell. D’Agostino tried to take second when Hornell was not paying attention but was chased back to first and tagged out by Morrison on a close play to end the game.
Oneonta relievers, Ben Moxley (Herkimer Community College) and Jaren Drummond (Grand Canyon University) kept the Hornell bats quiet for the rest of the game. Neither pitcher allowed a hit. Moxley struck out four in three-and-two-thirds innings. Drummond sent down three Dodgers on strikes while pitching one-and-one-third innings. Both relievers walked one.
Joe Gnacinski (Mercyhurst College) earned the win for Hornell. He pitched four innings allowing three runs on five hits, striking out two.
Jeff Beall (Urbana University) came on for the Dodgers in the seventh with runners at the corners and one out before forcing a fly out on the infield and strikeout to end the threat. He stayed on to complete the game allowing one run on two hits in two-and-two-thirds innings pitched.
“[Beall] doesn’t make a lot of mistakes up in the zone. He’s not overpowering, but you got to beat him,” Hornell coach, Tom Kenney said. “He doesn’t beat himself.”
The Outlaws felt that they outplayed Hornell aside from the fourth inning.
“I just think we had one bad inning,” Hughes stated. “The rest of the game, we played very well.”
Hughes and the rest of the Oneonta squad are prepared to win two straight elimination games tomorrow.
“First you have to win the first one, so we’ll do everything we can to win that first game. Hopefully we’ll get some good pitching and timely hitting and force a game three,” Hughes said. “In a one-game series, anything can happen.”
Play was suspended Saturday night in the top of the third inning with the Oneonta Outlaws leading the Hornell Dodgers 2-0. Rain poured down onto the field making it completely unplayable.
Oneonta scored both of their runs in the top of the third inning as the rain started to fall heavily in Hornell. Tyler Martis (Siena College) drew a lead off walk to start the inning. He advanced to second on a wild pitch and came home to score on Kody Ruedisili’s (Wofford College) RBI double. Ruedisili moved to third on a fly out by Ben Mauseth (Grand Canyon University) before he scored on a wild pitch to put the Outlaws ahead 2-0.
After Ruedisili scored, the umpires called a rain delay. Both teams were told that the game would not be completed Saturday night.
The game resumed at 7:00 on Sunday in Oneonta.
Game two will be held in Hornell, Monday at 4:00 with Oneonta as the home team. If necessary, game three will follow 45 minutes after the completion of game two.
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