By RYAN McDONOUGH
OLEAN, N.Y. – Monday’s New York Collegiate Baseball League showdown at Bradner Stadium was a roller coaster of a game if there ever was one.
When it was all said and done, the Olean Oilers needed extra innings to snap their three-game losing skid and defeat the Geneva Twins, 6-5.
Austin Bizzle (Alabama St. U) threw seven no-hit innings, and the Oilers improved to .500 on the season.
“He’s a completely different kid on start day than he is any other day of the week,” said Oilers manager Bobby Bell. “He’s the kind of kid you leave alone from the second he wakes up in the morning until the game. He’s always locked in, whether he’s winning by a lot or losing by a lot.”
Bizzle struck out four and walked two over nine innings.
The Oilers jumped out to an early, as Cole Peterson (St. Bonaventure) made his way around the bases to come home to score in the bottom of the first inning.
In the very next frame, they picked up right where they left off. Four RBI singles from Matt Kamenicky (Clarion), Peterson, Sam Kysor (South Carolina Upstate) and Brandon Savage (Marymount) put the Oilers up 5-0 early on.
“We are getting hits a lot, and we’re really trying to string those hits together,” said Bell of his offense, which put up six hits in the second inning. “When we’re doing that and firing on all cylinders, it really shows what kind of team we are.”
Geneva squeezed one home in the top of the third as J.T. Pittman (LeMoyne) reached base on an error and moved to third on an overthrown pickoff attempt. Pittman scored on a sacrifice fly from Josh Handzik (St. Joseph’s College).
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Bizzle held the Twins without a hit while his counterpart, Josh Laferty (Widener) settled in and tossed five shutout inning from the third through the seventh.
While Bizzle flirted with a no-hitter, both teams went a combined 0-27 with no base runners from the bottom of the third through the end of the seventh.
Bizzle’s magic ended with the first batter of the eighth inning. Connor Simonetti (Kent St.) grounded a single up the middle, serving as just the second base runner of the evening for the Twins.
Simonetti made his way to third and scored as Pittman came through with an RBI single. Austin Kearney (Carson-Newman) walked. Dan Koller (Thiel) dropped a sacrifice bunt. When the throw from third was off target Kearney came around to score and cut the Olean lead to two at 5-3.
Pittman later scored on a sacrifice fly to make it a one run game, and Koller came home on a passed ball to tie it up at 5-5.
With David “Bubba” Hollins (St. Petersburg College) on second base in the bottom of the eighth and two outs – the Oilers’ first base runner since the second inning – Geneva’s Bob Barnett (Widener) made a diving catch in centerfield to strand Hollins, end the inning and save a run.
Marty Napelton (St. Joseph’s) led off the ninth inning with a double, but Bizzle sandwiched a strikeout with two groundouts to carry the tied score to the bottom of the ninth.
Nine innings would not be enough to decide it.
Peterson led off the bottom of the tenth with a single and Kysor moved him to second with a single of his own. But Peterson was thrown out at third on a double steal, leaving Kysor at second base. Kysor moved up to third on a groundout from Hollins, and came in to score the game winning, walk-off run on a passed ball.
“It was a little crazy, but it’s a ‘W.’ I love putting them in the left column,” Bell added. “They aren’t always pretty, but they always count, so we’ll take it.”
The Twins will head home and take on the Hornell Dodgers on Wednesday, June 24 at 3:00 p.m.
Monday marked the first game of a four-game homestand for the Oilers as they welcome the Rochester Ridgemen for a three-game series, beginning Tuesday, June 23 at Bradner Stadium. First pitch is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.
The Oilers were 4-7 with runners in scoring position in the first two innings. All four hits were single, and all were RBI.
Austin Bizzle threw just 17 pitches in the first two innings.
All 10 of the Oilers’ hits were singles.
The Twins were held to just three hits, despite scoring five runs.
Napelton has hit safely in his last five games, and has multi-hit games in five of his last nine games.
The top four hitters in the Oilers’ lineup all recorded at least one hit and one RBI.
Both teams have .500 records, as the Oilers now sit at 9-9 and the Twins at 10-10.
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