By ANTHONY SAMBROTTO
NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. — It was quite a homecoming Tuesday night for Cameron Carney.
Carney and the Rochester Ridgemen defeated the Niagara Power 4-2 in New York Collegiate Baseball League action at Sal Maglie Stadium.
Carney (Tusculum College), a Niagara Falls native, hurled a complete game in his first appearance back in the Falls since 2011. The right-hander went arm-to-arm with Power ace Nathan Robinson (Cedarville University), who entered the game 4-0 on the season.
Unfortunately for Robinson, he was done in by defensive mistakes.
The Ridgemen scored three runs in the fourth inning to open the scoring, and never looked back. Two of the runs came home due to throwing errors. A sacrifice fly by first baseman Tim Gurnow(Southwest Baptist) capped the scoring.
A miscommunication in Niagara’s outfield allowed another run to score in the top of the fifth, which would be all the scoring Carney and the Ridgemen needed.
Robinson lasted one more inning, finishing with six innings pitched giving up four runs (two earned) on six hits and striking out three. B.J. Greathouse (Summit University) pitched a scoreless final three innings to give his team a chance to come back.
Greathouse, who also sang the national anthem before the game, has yet to allow a run this year through 16 innings of work.
But the game circled back to Carney, who allowed only three base runners for the first eight innings until the Power hitters were finally able to get something going.
With two outs in the inning, Bryan Klendworth (Olivet Nazarene University) blasted a 2-RBI triple and cut the Ridgemen lead to 4-2. With the tying run at the plate, Carney was able to get Conner Combs (East Texas Baptist University) to pop out to the first baseman.
With that, Carney finished the game allowing two runs on five hits and one walk while striking out nine. He is now 4-2 on the season with a 2.25 ERA. Tuesday night also marked his second consecutive complete game.
VIEW SUE KANE’S FLICKR GALLERY HERE.
“I had a lot of adrenaline coming in to today, it’s just good to be home,” Carney said. “I loved playing here when I was 17, and it feels good to be back.”
Carney’s nine strikeouts was his second-highest total on the season, something he credits to using multiple pitches effectively.
“I had a good mix today even though I’m a fastball dominant guy,” he said. “I’m going to trust my stuff and today I got them to swing at some pitches that went my way.”
Power manager Josh Rebandt also respected the efforts of Carney while acknowledging his team fell short of executing in the game.
“We had a couple plays that we could have executed on that could have been different, but we also stranded a couple runners,” Rebandt said. When you face a pitcher like that you have to be good, if not better, to win and with a guy like that we need to get to their bullpen.”
With Carney’s five complete games on the season the Power knew they were up for a challenge, but Rebandt said Carney also changed his approach Tuesday.
“He was around the strike zone a lot more than he has been this season,” Rebandt said. “He is a guy that is a little more effective to go out of the zone but it worked for him today and he only walked one batter. ”
Also having a big day for the Ridgemen was left fielder Drew Farmer (Western Michigan) who had four hits in the game and also walked. The only other player to have a multi-hit game was Power catcher Jessep Polk (North Greenville University) who went 2-for-4 with two singles.
For Carney, entering his fifth season of college at his third different school in the fall, his ultimate goal is to still play in the majors.
“I have a leg day tomorrow that I’m probably going to throw up after with the amount of work and the running, but you cant take a day off,” he said. “As much as you’d like to take one off, it’s got to be day in and day out as hard as you can go.”
These two teams will battle it out again Wednesday night, this time in Rochester. First pitch is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Basket Road Field.
The Niagara Power fell to 19-8 on the season and remain a half game ahead of the Hornell Dodgers in the NYCBL’s Western Division. The Ridgemen improved to 13-17 and sit 7.5 games back of the Power.
Leave a Reply