By PAUL GOTHAM
OLEAN, N.Y. — It appears in the box score as a fielder’s choice – a routine play. The execution and impact were anything but ordinary.
In the final assessment it was a decoy, communication and an alert player on the bag. Olean Oilers’ manager Bobby Bell might have mumbled check mate when it was done.
With two runs in and two aboard including the tying run at second in the eighth inning of Monday night’s Western Divisional Series game, the Olean Oilers’ defense stopped their opponent’s momentum. Olean left fielder Sam Kysor (USC – Upstate) didn’t need to dive, nor run down a drive in the gap. He made what Bell referred to later as a “real baseball move.”
And a pair of his teammates were ready to help him capitalize.
The Geneva Twins’ Kenny Reckart (Wooster) sent a one-out hump back liner into left. Andy Lalonde (So. New Hampshire), the runner at second, watched the ball go over his head. He turned and glanced at Kysor who straightened up and brought his glove to eye level like he was ready gather a fly ball.
Lalonde hesitated.
Ball bounced. Kysor fielded it on a hop and came up firing.
“If he doesn’t flash his glove, it doesn’t happen,” Bell said. “That’s just Sam being a smart baseball player. He knows if he flashes the glove, it makes the runner stall for just a half a second, and that’s what he did out there.”
The 6-5, 220 pound Lalonde, who had just missed a home run by feet before ending up with a double, didn’t stand a chance. Cole Peterson (St. Bonaventure) moved to take the cut-off. Bubba Hollins (St. Petersburg Coll) reacted to cover the bag at third.
“I just said ‘through, through, through,’” Hollins explained. “Me and Cole got real good chemistry out there. He’s a smart enough ballplayer to let that go.”
The throw beat Lalonde to the third-base bag.
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Two batters later, the threat ended. The Twins had gone from getting their first three of the inning aboard to leaving two on base. Olean finished it out for a 3-2 victory to clinch the series.
“That was huge,” Hollins said. “The game could have completely turned around there.
“I got to give that one to Sammy. He put his glove up like he was going to catch it. Andy got stuck halfway. I got to the bag and saw him…He just threw it perfect – right on the bag.”
The play was one of several game-changers made by the Olean defense.
In the fourth inning of a then-scoreless contest, Geneva’s Luke Waldek (Minn. St. Comm. & Tech. Coll.) stepped to the plate with one out, runners on second and third and drilled a shot to the right side of the infield. Olean first baseman, Johnny Lapolla (Suffolk) snared the line drive off his shoe tops, pivoted and fired to Peterson at second for the inning-ending double play.
“John’s a cat over there,” said third-year Oiler catcher Mike Fahrman (University of Florida). “He’s a really good athlete. That was an unbelievable play.”
Geneva loaded the bases with one out in the fifth, before Oiler starter, Brandon Schlimm (St. Bonaventure) struck out the next batter. It looked like Marty Napleton (St. Joseph’s Coll) would get the Twins on the board with a ground ball up the middle, but Peterson ranged behind the bag and got the force out to end the inning.
“He’s no doubt our best defender,” Hollins said of Peterson.
With the win Olean secured its first playoff series victory in franchise history. The Oilers will host the Niagara Power Wednesday in game one of a best-of-three Western Division Championship series. First pitch at Bradner Stadium is scheduled for 7 p.m.
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