By PAUL GOTHAM
SYRACUSE, N.Y. — For now it appears only a hole in the ground can slow the Syracuse Salt Cats’ Cory Vogeli (Misericordia).
Vogeli hurled six shutout innings as the Salt Cats defeated the Syracuse Jr. Chiefs, 4-1 in New York Collegiate Baseball League action at Onondaga Community College on Wednesday night.
The southpaw struck out five, walked two and surrendered one hit for his fourth win of the season.
“He had guys off balance mixing fastballs with a tremendous curveball,” Salt Cats manager Mike Martinez said. “The trick was he was getting guys 0-and-2 and 1-and-2 then throwing them something that was close but not hittable. Guys were going after it.”
Vogeli (4-0) tossed six shutout innings last Friday against the Geneva Red Wings. He has thrown 16 straight shutout innings and has allowed just one run in 22 innings of work this summer.
“He’s big kid,” Marinez said. “He’s physically in tremendous shape. He comes to work every single day. He’s on a strict program that he abides by daily. He works hard every day. He’s a solid pitcher. He knows how to get guys out and on top of that he throws very hard.”
Vogeli left the game soon after landing awkwardly with his plant foot.
“Cory could have gone a little bit more, but he hit a hole in the mound and twisted his ankle a little bit,” Martinez explained. “He was going good…We figured we take him out, ice him and get him ready for the next time. He did pitch very, very well.”
The Salt Cats offense produced all the runs needed in the third inning.
Matt Mastroianni (SUNY Oneonta) worked a one-out walk off Jr. Chiefs starter, Nate Doiron (Dean Coll). Tim Hunter (Tyler JC) doubled, and Jose Colon (Rutgers-Camden) plated a pair with a base hit.
“Tonight we did that [scored runs] early,” Martinez said. “We stayed on top.”
The Salt Cats added insurance runs in the fourth and fifth.
Julian Bilodeau (Palm Beach Atlantic) doubled and scored in the fourth. Cameron Dias (Rutgers-Newark) brought home Brian Billelo (Concordia) with a two-out triple in the third.
Kyle Perez (SUNY Brockport) tossed a scoreless seventh for the Salt Cats.
Kyle Taylor (Gloucester County Coll) worked the ninth for his fourth save of the season.
Sam Ellinwood (Amherst) scored the Jr. Chiefs only run the eighth. The shortstop was hit by a pitch to start the frame and moved to second on Alex Schutz (St. Bonaventure) sacrifice. Michael Elfreth (Widener) followed with an RBI single.
Ryan Delgado (Corning CC) pitched two scoreless innings of relief for the Jr. Chiefs.
Billelo finished 2-for-4 with a walk for the Salt Cats as did Evan Holland (Florida International).
The Salt Cats improved to 11-8 on the season and trail the Geneva Red Wings (11-6) by two games in the NYCBL’s Eastern Division. They travel to Sherrill on Thursday for meeting with the Silversmiths. A 5 p.m. first pitch is scheduled.
The Jr. Chiefs (10-10) travel to Oneonta to take on the Outlaws (9-7). First pitch is slated for 7 p.m. at Damaschke Field.
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