By ABIGAIL SCHMIDT
HOUGHTON, N.Y. — The rain held off as the Genesee Rapids pulled out a win against the Wellsville Nitros, 6-2 in New York Collegiate Baseball League action at the Kerr-Pegula Athletic Complex, Tuesday night.
The Rapids got off to a strong start with two runs scored in the first inning, and they didn’t look back.
Brett St. Clair (Walsh) got the win on the mound for the Rapids. He gave up only two earned runs, walked two and struck out four in seven innings.
“I felt really confident throwing tonight.” St. Clair commented.
He gave all the credit, however, to his teammates.
“I had a great defense behind me. [The offense] gave me a few runs early, and it really let me settle in. I did the easy thing; throwing strikes is easy. It’s what they did for me that really helped me out today. Without that offense, who knows what’s going to happen.”
The offense stayed consistent throughout the night, scoring two runs in the first, two in the sixth and two in the seventh to seal the deal.
The runs in the first came from Nick Ippolito (California State Stanislaus) and Corey Andrade (Anna Maria) off RBI singles from Tommy Haas (Arkansas of Pine Bluff) and Tyler Minogue (Bellarmine).
The sixth inning was more of the same as Andrade and Minogue crossed the plate with two outs working against them.
The Rapids finished up their scoring in the seventh, when Bailey Smith (Howard Payne) and Ippolito were plated off an RBI single from Ryan Dickt (Virginia-Wise).
“In the innings that they scored, it wasn’t just one, they scored two runs in all three innings,” stated Nitros manager Jake Bannerman. “If we limit the damage when they get guys on base, make a couple good pitches here and there and defensively throw to the right base I think it would be a completely different baseball game.”
Rapids manager Tyler Rost was pleased with his team tonight. “We came out tonight and we played fundamentally sound. We were able to put some runs up early, and Brett threw really well.”
“Having timely hitting is big,” he continued. “In the sixth inning we did it all with two outs. We can have lots of guys on base, but if you don’t get that big, timely hit, you don’t have much to show for it. But we did it tonight.”
The Nitros found some life of their own in the top of the seventh and eighth innings. Dylan Rajkovich (Webster) crossed the plate from a Harry Montero (Bloomfield) single to make the score 4-1 going into the bottom of the seventh.
“Late in games our at-bats and our approaches have changed completely, and we’ve been starting to hit the baseball and get on base. It’s just taking that from the first inning on that’s the key,” Coach Bannerman stated.
Chris Collins (Hamilton) scored in the eighth off a Bruce Strickland (Felician) RBI single.
The mound saw three pitchers for the Nitros. Adam Schmitt (Concordia) started and received the loss. He gave up five hits, four earned runs and had four strikeouts in five innings. Michael Vorvis (Hilbert) came in at the bottom of the sixth inning to get the third out. Joshua Cline came out of the bullpen in the bottom of the seventh and finished out the game.
“Really our pitching has not been an issue for us so far,” said Bannerman. “Our starter pitched well and the bullpen only gave up one hit.”
The Rapids relievers tonight included Jason Collingwood (Greenville), who came in at the top of the eighth to get the third out. Breton LaRose (Sacred Heart) completed the game for the Rapids.
The two teams will face each other again tomorrow night in Wellsville at 5pm.
The Nitros fall to 3-6 on the season.
The Rapids improve to 5-3 with the win, and Rost remains optimistic.
“We just have to continue to have a good approach at the plate, continue to put balls in play, and our pitchers just need to continue throwing strikes.”
Written by Abigail Schmidt, junior year communications and business major at Houghton College
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