By CAMERON BOON
WEBSTER, N.Y. — One big inning can set the stage for an entire game, and in this case, it was two big innings that gave the Rochester Ridgemen and Olean Oilers a split of their doubleheader Saturday afternoon at Basket Road Field. Olean scored four runs in the fifth inning of game one to take a 4-2 victory, then Rochester answered with a three-run third in game two en route to a 4-3 victory in New York Collegiate Baseball league action.
“I was overly impressed,” Olean coach Sean O’Connell said of his team’s opening game. “The aggression at the plate is starting to change.”
Rochester started early against Olean’s Austin Bizzle (Alabama State), plating a pair in the bottom of the first.
Colin Winn (Santa Ana) and Ryan O’Hearn (Hillsdale) each started the game with a base hit and both scored on Alex Stack’s (U of Dallas) single that gave the Ridgemen the early 2-0 lead.
Both players combined for seven of Rochester’s 17 hits in both games.
“When something goes wrong, he locks down,” O’Connell said of his 2014 All Star, and he did just that.
Bizzle only allowed one runner to reach third through his final five innings of work, keeping Rochester’s offense at bay.
He finished the night going six innings, walking only three and striking out six.
Olean’s offense, however, got started in the fifth with one of the odder plays. Dan Pellinen (Friends) hit a soft liner that could have been easily caught by either Armando Valentin (Benedict) at second or Aaron Vallance (Wayland Baptist) at third, but miscommunication allowed the ball to drop and Josh Rolls’ (Midland Lutheran) night on the mound went south really fast after that.
“Josh has been a tough-luck pitcher for us,” Ridgemen head man Joe Shallenberger said. “Each time we have gone out and made a mistake behind him, and that’s opened up a big inning.”
That’s exactly what this play did. Three batters later, Samuel Kysor (USC Upstate) laced a triple to the right-center field fence tying the game at two apiece.
The next batter, Isaac Dillard (Gulf Coast CC), hit a triple in the same spot to score Kysor. Dillard scored on the next pitch, a passed ball, and that made it 4-2 Olean.
“You take a win any way you can get it,” O’Connell said. Though there were some favors given, Olean took advantage to earn the victory in the opener.
Game two was a different story, as Olean got on the board first via Dillard’s sacrifice fly.
Rochester unloaded in the bottom of the third for three, but did so playing small ball. After Vallance’s one-out single, Winn and O’Hearn both layed down beautiful bunt singles, the latter scoring Vallance to tie the game.
“When you put a bunt into [that bermuda triangle], it confuses the heck out of the pitcher, first and second,” O’Connell said.
That’s exactly where the bunts were placed, creating havoc in the Olean infield. Tyler Taute then provided the exclamation point in the inning, roping a single to center to score both Winn and O’Hearn to give Rochester a 3-1 lead.
This was Taute’s first multi-RBI game of the season, and his first run driven in since June 21.
Olean responded in the fifth with Evan Ryan (Erie CC) and David Hollins (St. Petersburg) RBI singles to knot the game back at three. Ryan’s scored Cole Peterson (St. Bonaventure), and Hollins drove in Ryan.
Stack gave Rochester the lead for good with his team-high 15th RBI in the bottom half of the fifth, driving in Winn from second.
After Ridgemen starter Zach Leonard (Lancaster Bible) gave up a leadoff single in the sixth, he gave way to Jacob Purcell (Clearwater Christian), who mowed down the six batters he saw to earn his first save of the 2015 season.
Rochester hosts Niagara for the final time in the regular season Sunday, with a 5:00 p.m. start time scheduled.
Olean is off tomorrow before a doubleheader at home Monday with the Power. Game one is slated for 5:00 p.m.
The Ridgemen currently sit 1.5 games back of the Genesee Rapids for the fourth and final playoff spot in the Western Division, while the Oilers sit only a half game back.
“We’re still in it,” Shallenberger said. “That’s the bottom line.”
Leave a Reply