By ABIGAIL SCHMIDT
HOUGHTON, N.Y—Nine innings weren’t enough to decide the game Sunday afternoon at the Kerr-Pegula Athletic Complex between the Genesee Rapids and the Niagara Power-it took fifteen for the Power to come away with their 23rd victory of the season.
The score was knotted at two from the fourth inning to the fourteenth until Caleb Lang (Cairn) stepped up to the plate with the bases loaded and two outs in the top of the fifteenth. He swung at the first pitch and recorded a two-run RBI that brought Caleb Thomas (Colorado School of Mines) and Jordan Hayes (Olivet Nazarene) home, and Niagara defeated Genesee, 4-2 in New York Collegiate Baseball League action.
“I was really just trying to pick the team up,” said Lang. “I had a couple of opportunities in the second and third with less than two outs where I just popped up so I just wanted to pick them up because they picked me up.”
Lang and Hayes each recorded a double on the afternoon, while Thomas and Hayes tallied one RBI each.
“Getting into the hitter’s counts worked for us in that inning,” said Power manager Josh Rebandt. “Seeing a fastball in a hitters count I think was a lot different, and Caleb is someone who’s usually going to come through for us and with this opportunity he did.”
“Lang is a good hitter,” commented Rapids manager Tyler Rost. “He’s one of the best in the league.”
Dallas Deavers (North Georgia) started on the mound and pitched an impressive ten innings. He allowed only two runs (one earned) on six hits with three strikeouts.
“Really just fastballs were working best today,” commented Deavers. “Just trying to work those. Once we got those down that’s what we lived off of.
When I started to get tired, I just told myself to just keep throwing strikes.”
Deavers also had a little bit of extra motivation:
“It’s my mom’s birthday so I wanted to do good for her; give her something to be happy about.”
Nick Campe (Olivet Nazarene) came out of the bullpen in the eleventh and received the win. He allowed no runs and only one hit with five strikeouts in five innings.
Three of his strikeouts came one right after another to close the thirteenth inning.
“Our pitchers were unbelievable today,” said Rebandt. “One of the things we challenge our pitchers with is to just pound the strike zone. A lot of guys that have scored against us in the past week have been getting on base with walks. So we’ve challenged them to throw strikes and let your defense do the work.”
The Power defense was efficient with only two errors. Shortstop Gabriel Sevigny (Olivet Nazarene) had eight assists.
Ned Monthie (Houghton) started for the Rapids. He allowed two runs on five hits with one strikeout in six innings.
Ryan Chamberlain (Pitt-Bradford), Breton LaRose (Sacred Heart), Jason Collingwood (Greenville) and Tommy Haas (Arkansas-Pine Bluff) also threw on the day. Haas took the loss.
The Rapids defense recorded zero errors.
“Our pitchers were great today,” commented Rost. “Ned went out there and he battled for us and threw six innings of great ball. We just couldn’t get anything offensively to help him out.
“You can’t hold a team like the Power down for long; we knew they would score eventually. We just needed to be better offensively to have a chance.”
Dan Crozier (Cazenovia) recorded an RBI single and a run on the day. Corey Andrade (Anna Maria), winner of the NYCBL All-Star home run derby, tallied a ground-rule double. Joey Chapman (Cedarville) also had a double.
The Power improved to 23-17 on the season and will face the Rapids again Monday night at the Kerr-Pegula Athletic Complex at 7 p.m.
“Each day we’re inching closer to a playoff clincher and that’s enough motivation for these guys at this point in the season.”
“This win was real big for us,” said Lang. “The way guys kept battling was great. Today sums up our team.”
The Rapids fall to 17-22 with the loss, and their playoff chances are dim as they sit in sixth in the NYCBL’s Western Division going into the last week of the regular season.
“They just need to get better every game,” said Rost. “As long as they’re getting better every game then we can be successful. That’s what we’re here to do; is get them to compete and make improvements.”
Written by Abby Schmidt, junior year business and communications major at Houghton College
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