By PAUL GOTHAM
GENEVA, N.Y. — Their starter didn’t have his best stuff. The offense left the bases loaded twice in the first three innings, yet the Geneva Twins won again.
The top two teams in the New York Collegiate Baseball League’s Western Division may be meeting in Niagara Falls this weekend, but the hottest team in the west resides at McDonough Park.
Bolstered by a 16-hit attack, Mitchell Powers (So. New Hampshire) earned his fifth win this season as Geneva defeated Genesee’s Rapids, 7-2 Saturday evening.
Powers struck out four and walked one to win his fourth straight decision, but the two earned runs on six hits over eight innings were as many as he allowed during his three previous outings – a stretch consisting of 22-plus innings.
“First time through the lineup you always try to get through with fastballs, so they don’t see your best stuff right away,” Powers said. “They hit the fastball pretty well.
“They looked fastball all game, and that’s when I got into trouble. Even kept the ball low, and they would just hit it.”
Genesee’s Corey Andrade (Anna Maria) drilled a 2-2 Powers fastball in the fourth to the deepest part of the park for his third home run of the season.
“I have to tip my hat to him,” Powers said. “It was a good hit. It was probably the longest home run I’ve ever let up.”
Tyler Minogue (Bellarmine) led the fifth with a double to left center. One out later, Jake Shelby (Hesston) singled through a drawn infield to score the run.
Genesee looked ready to add more. Bailey Smith (Howard Payne) walked, and Nick Ippolito (Cal St.-Stanislaus) reached on an error to load the bases with one out. A failed suicide squeeze bunt play followed by a ground out ended the threat.
“He’s doing a great job competing for us,” Geneva manager Andy Weeks said of Powers. “That is what pitching is. I always tell the guys: ‘think of it as a 10-80-10. Eighty percent of the time you have your mediocre stuff. Ten percent of the time you have your best stuff, and ten percent of the time you’re just awful.’ It’s what you do when you got your okay stuff.”
Powers settled in and did not allow a runner past first for his last three innings of work.
“He’s what you want out of a starting pitcher,” Genesee manager Tyler Rost said. “He doesn’t fall behind guys. He gets ahead. He pounds the zone. Our guys were hitting in pitchers’ counts all day, not hitters’ counts. He did a great job.”
The outing was the third straight where Powers looked his best at the end. On June 26th, the right-hander retired the last 12 he faced in a win over Wellsville. Against Genesee on July 5th, Powers allowed just one hit over his last five frames of work.
“By the end of the game, that’s when I feel strongest,” Powers stated. “I know it’s weird, but that’s definitely when I feel strongest. As I go on through the game, I understand what I’m doing wrong, and I fixed that. It’s all about making adjustments a pitcher.”
Connor Simonetti (Kent State) highlighted a three-run sixth with his league-leading sixth home run. The Geneva first baseman plated JT Pittman (Le Moyne) when he turned on a 3-0 from offering from Genesee starter, Brett St. Clair (Walsh).
“Usually I’m not big on swinging 3-0, but he left one right over the middle of the plate,” Simonetti explained. “I just reacted and got a good piece of it.”
Jeremy Tejada (So. New Hampshire) reached on a hit by pitch to start the inning. Pittman walked one out later. Tejada stole third and scored when the throw sailed into left field.
Simonetti followed with the two-out blast over the McDonough Park scoreboard in right field.
“I was just trying to barrel something up. I struck out in the bat before and flew out. I just missed barreling him. He was staying away. He pitched backwards. He was throwing a lot of breaking balls, change ups.”
Geneva put the game out of reach with back-to-back two-out hits in the seventh.
Kenny Reckart (Wooster) stretched a one-out single into a double. One out later, Tejada reached on a infield single. Bob Barnett (Widener) delivered with a two-RBI double to left.
“He threw a first pitch slider that just happen to catch the inside part of the plate,” Barnett explained. “I just put a good swing on it.”
“It’s really important being able to do that for Mitch because he’s one of the best pitchers in the league,” Simonetti said of the late offensive surge. “Giving him a lead and letting him being able to go out and throw a lot of first pitch fastballs for strikes and get ahead and not have to worry.”
Simonetti brought home Barnett with a base hit in the first. Luke Waldek (Minnesota St. Comm &Tech Coll) singled and scored in the second.
Ben Wood (Pamona-Pitzer) tossed a scoreless ninth for Geneva.
Geneva defeated Genesee (16-17) on Friday. The loss was the fifth in Genesee’s last seven games. Andrade sat out the last two games for precautionary measures as the result of concussion-like symptoms received from a collision.
“It’s really hurt us this past week not having him in the lineup,” Rost said of Andrade. “Can’t wait to get him back in there full time.
“We just got to grind it out. Continue to grind out at bats. They put a lot of balls in play today, and those resulted in a lot of hits for them. We got to be a little better about putting balls in play and giving ourselves a chance to make things happen.”
Geneva (20-13) won their seventh straight and are 9-1 in their last ten. The Twins trail first-place Hornell (23-10) by three games.
“We’re starting to swing the bats the way we can swing the bats,” Weeks said. “We’re putting together good swings, good approaches.”
Reckart finished the game 3-for-5. Barnett collected two hits in four at bats with a walk.
Marty Napleton (St. Joseph’s College) and Andy Lalonde (So. New Hampshire) both went 2-for-5.
Genesee’s Tommy Haas (Arkansas Pine Bluff) went 2-for-4.
Hornell took three of four from Niagara (21-11) over the last two days.
The same two teams meet again on Sunday at McDonough Park. A 5 p.m. first pitch is slated.
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