By PATRICK McGLYNN
SYRACUSE, N.Y. — A dominant pitching performance from Nathan Doiron (Dean) helped the Syracuse Jr. Chiefs come away with a 2-1 win over the Cortland Crush Thursday afternoon at Onondaga Community College.
Doiron finished with a line of eight innings pitched, allowing just one run on four hits and six walks. It was the longest start of the year for him and gave him his first win in three starts.
“Doiron is a competitive kid, a bulldog out on the mound, and he wants to be out there every single day.” said Jr. Chiefs manager Matt Colbert. “He did a great job for us today and threw strikes. In a game where we did not score a lot of runs, he did his job and got us the win today.”
After scoring just one run in Wednesday’s loss, the Jr. Chiefs would match that total in their first at-bats. Alex Perry (Salve Regina) started a two-out rally with an infield single. Shane Trevino (IPFW) and Brian Colbert (Keuka) followed with consecutive singles to score Perry.
That would be the only run in the first four and a half innings as Doiron and Crush pitcher Yale Hughes (West Liberty) did a great job of keeping hitters off-balance. Hughes threw seven innings, giving up two runs, although only one was earned, on six hits to go with five strikeouts.
“Hughes pitched a very good game,” said Crush manager Bill McConnell. “He had a tough first inning, giving up a run, but after that the only other run was unearned.”
That unearned run would come in the fifth inning.
Sam Ellinwood (Amherst) led off the inning with a single to right field and then moved up to second base on a Michael Elfreth (Widener) sacrifice bunt. A strikeout got the second out of the inning and then it looked like Hughes had escaped without allowing a run when he got Philip Madonna (Siena) to hit a groundball to short. However, Madonna to reach first on an error and give the Jr. Chiefs new life. They would take advantage when Justin Healey (Widener) singled, scoring Ellinwood and doubling the Jr. Chiefs lead.
Doiron had no reason to fear giving up an unearned run as his defense was excellent behind him. Of the 24 batters Doiron retired, just two of them came on strikeouts. The Jr. Chiefs defense was perfect on the other 22 outs and did not commit an error on the day. Ellinwood was the standout at shortstop as he finished with three putouts and five assists.
“Our defense was excellent today,” said Colbert. “Ellinwood saves so many base hits and so many runs just because of how he plays defense. He is the anchor of our defense and that’s why he’s in the lineup every day.”
Doiron started the ninth inning on the mound looking to finish a complete game shutout, but the Crush had other ideas. Neil McCormack (Le Moyne) led off the inning with a pinch hit walk and then Grant Hoover (Shippensburg) singled to put runners on first and second without an out. That would be the end of Doiron’s day as Christopher Pennell (St. Thomas Aquinas) came into replace him.
“I was trying to establish the zone right off the bat and tried to hit my spots,” said Doiron. “I’m very confident in my defense and with those guys behind me, I felt like I could throw any pitch in any situation.”
Pennell came into the game hoping to earn his sixth save of the season. A sacrifice bunt by Nicholas Panissidi (Neumann) moved the runners up to second and third, and then a wild pitch by Pennell brought pinch runner Terrell Barringer (Lincoln) home to make the score 2-1. With Hoover on third base and just one out, Colbert would moved the Jr. Chiefs infield in, hoping to get a ground ball and prevent the run from scoring.
Pennell would get exactly that as Hank Pellicciotti (Binghamton) grounded out to Ellinwood for the second out. Pennell would then walk Alexander Loberger (Northland) to bring up Luke Gilbert (SUNY Brockport) with men on the corners.
With two strikes on Gilbert, Loberger tried to steal second base. Pennell saw this and was able to stop his pitching motion and get Loberger caught in a rundown between first and second base. As Pennell turned towards Loberger, Panissidi broke from third base towards home plate, attempting to tie the game. Pennell spun and threw to Jr. Chiefs catcher Madonna, who applied a tag to the sliding Hoover for the final out of the game, giving Doiron his first win.
Ellinwood was the only player with multiple hits as he went 2-for-3 with a run scored. Crush designated hitter Jose Arebalo’s (Eastern Nazarene) double was the only extra base hit of the day, with Arebalo finishing 1-for-4 at the plate.
The two teams will meet again tomorrow at 7:00 pm at Onondaga Community College in the second game of a four-game series.
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