By CAMERON BOON
WEBSTER, N.Y. — Josh Rolls (Midland Lutheran) went the distance, throwing all nine innings while striking out seven and only walking one, and the Rochester Ridgemen lived to fight another day in the Western Division playoff race with a 4-0 win over the second seed-to be Geneva Twins in New York Collegiate Baseball League action at Basket Road Field Thursday night.
“[Geneva was] going to have some fun tonight, and they did, but we had to take care of our business and we did,” Ridgemen head coach Joe Shallenberger said.
The Ridgemen had a balanced offensive effort, with three players grabbing RBI and Colin Winn (Santa Ana) putting together a multi-hit night, the only player on the home side to do so.
Marty Napleton (St. Joseph’s) roped three base hits, and J.T. Pittman (LeMoyne) added two knocks to power the Twins, who never got a base runner to third in their regular season finale. They will be the two-seed when the Western Divisional Series gets underway on Sunday.
“They had nothing to lose and came in really loose,” Shallenberger said about Andrew Weeks’ club.
They also used a lot of pitchers.
Eight different hurlers took the mound with none of them going more than two innings and some players who had not pitched all year also took the hill, much to the delight of the Twins dugout, who used it as comedic relief throughout the night.
“Baseball is about adjustments,” Shallenberger eluded to. “You’re trying to make them and all of a sudden there’s a new pitcher. It becomes a whole new ballgame.”
Rochester got on the board early though.
In the first, Ryan O’Hearn (Hillsdale) sent a one-out single to left. After stealing second, he scored on Tage Johnson’s (Houghton) RBI single to left to give the Ridgemen a lead they would never relinquish in the game.
The Ridgemen added runs in the fourth, fifth and seventh, with Alex Stack (U of Dallas), Michael DiViesti (Butler) and Winn each scoring after reaching base with a walk.
Stack scored on Drew Farmer’s (Western Michigan) triple to right center that came within about 10 feet of a home run.
Winn brought home DiViesti with a base hit in the fifth to make it 3-0 and then scored in the seventh to make it 4-0 courtesy of a wild pitch by then-Geneva pitcher Andy Lalonde (Southern New Hampshire), who walked four batters during his one inning of work.
Geneva mounted threats late, putting two runners on in the sixth and eighth innings, but neither would come to fruition, as Rolls got a strikeout to end the sixth and then a fly out to center to end the eighth inning.
The Ridgemen finish their 2015 regular season Friday night at Sal Maglie Stadium, taking on the Niagara Power who are fighting for playoff position with the Olean Oilers.
Rochester’s elimination number is down to one with the win, however, as Olean rallied past the Hornell Dodgers 9-4. The Ridgemen now need to win tomorrow night in Niagara and hope Olean loses their final three games of the season.
“We can’t control the outcome of Olean’s game,” Shallenberger said. “Niagara’s going to bring their A-game, so we need to bring ours.”
First pitch from near the Falls is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.
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