By CAMERON BOON
WEBSTER, N.Y. — The Geneva Twins got their attack started early, plating three runs on five hits in the top of the first before the Rochester Ridgemen could even swing a bat.
That was all the separation they needed, as in the end it was a three-run victory for the Twins by the score of 4-1 in New York Collegiate Baseball League action at Basket Road Field on Wednesday night.
“When you’re on the road, you want to try and score some early,” Geneva head coach Andrew Weeks said. “We’ve done a really good job with that. Our problem lately has been scoring late.”
The Twins would only plate one run and record three hits in the final eight innings of play, but Josh Laferty (Widener) pitched a complete game five-hitter to keep the Ridgemen bats in check.
“He was throwing great,” Weeks said.
Laferty only allowed the lone run in the fourth inning, struck out two Rochester batters and only walked one en route to his third win of the season to stay undefeated.
“If a pitcher’s doing that, I’m going to reward him.” Weeks added about his pitcher.
Laftery was helped by an aggressive approach from the Ridgemen, in which 14 batters swung at either the first or second pitch in an at-bat. As a result, Lafterty finished the day at 97 pitches.
“The aggression carried over from last game,” Ridgemen head coach Joe Shallenberger. “Whenever you have guys hit the ball well, they’re going to come out swinging.”
Shallenberger is referring to the game on Monday night, in which the team had their best offensive performance by tallying eight runs and 10 hits.
They started that game against the Wellsville Nitros with four runs in the first two innings. Wednesday night there would be no such hot start for Rochester, but there would be for the Twins.
Austin Kearney (Carson-Newman), Kenny Reckart (Wooster) and JT Pittman (LeMoyne) loaded the bases with consecutive singles to start the game.
All three came around to score on two productive outs and a RBI single by Andy Lalonde (St. Bonaventure).
Rochester answered with a run in the fourth off the bat of Alex Stack (U of Dallas), as he laced a single to left to score Cole Metcalfe (Bellarmine) after Metcalfe led the inning with a double.
Geneva brought their lead back to three in the following half inning. Reckart started the top of the fifth with a walk then later scored on Marty Napleton’s (St. Joseph’s) two-out single to center field.
Napleton finished the day as one of two multi-hit players, with Lalonde also cashing in a 2-for-4 effort.
After Ridgemen starter Nikolas Jensen (Grays Harbor) was chased after five innings of work, relievers Josh Flanders (Crown) and Tyler Taute (MidAmerica Nazarene) held the Twins hitless over the final four innings while striking out a batter each.
The Twins improve to 7-6 on the season, while Rochester falls to 4-7.
Same two teams tomorrow at McDonaugh Park as they will play a pair of games in Geneva. The first one is slated to start at 2:00 p.m. while the nightcap is scheduled for 5:00 p.m.
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