By NATE DISCAVAGE
ONEONTA, N.Y. – The Oneonta Outlaws are no strangers to making deep postseason runs. In each of their four previous years of New York Collegiate Baseball League play the Outlaws have reached the Eastern Division Championship Series, advancing to the league finals over the last three seasons. Oneonta will get a chance to continue their run after sweeping a day-night doubleheader from the Cortland Crush (6-2/12-4) at Damaschke Field.
Game one, a continuation of Sunday night’s rain delay, started in the bottom of the third inning with the Outlaws already leading 5-0. Oneonta’s first four batters all recorded hits as the Outlaws recorded three runs in the frame.
RBI-singles from Jordan Bradley (Wofford College) and Zach Blonder (Maryville College) in the second pushed the Oneonta lead to five before the rain started to pour.
After the game was postponed to Tuesday, Cortland won “game two” 4-3 to take a 1-0 lead in the series and push the Outlaws on the brink of elimination.
As game one resumed in Oneonta, Blonder tallied his third hit of the game with an RBI-single to give the Outlaws a 6-0 lead.
The Crush struck for two in the seventh to narrow the gap as Jose Arebalo (Eastern Nazarene College) hit an RBI-double before scoring on a Sean Getman (SUNY-Cortland) RBI-single. However, they could not manage another run off Oneonta in game one.
Mike Diorio (Albany) earned the win for Oneonta. He started the second half of game one and pitched three and one-third innings. Diorio allowed two runs on seven hits while walking one and striking out one.
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Crush starter Nate Verst (Kentucky Wesleyan College) suffered the loss for Cortland. He allowed five runs (three earned) over two and one-third innings pitched. The 5’9 right-hander walked two and struck out one.
The Crush jumped ahead 1-0 in the top of the first inning in the decisive game three when William Haaland (Trinity University) hit an RBI-single. The lead was short-lived as the Outlaws struck for three runs in the bottom of the first.
Ryan Nelson (Quinnipiac University) hit an RBI-triple in the first inning to highlight the first of three offensive outbursts for the Outlaws.
Nelson had an RBI-single in the bottom of the third inning before Trevor Putzig (Tennessee Tech University) hit a two-run double and later scored on a Tyler Martis (Siena College) single to extend Oneonta’s lead to 7-1 after three.
Any hope for a Cortland comeback was crushed in the bottom of the fourth when the Outlaws sent all nine batters to the plate and recorded four more runs on three hits while taking advantage of three Crush errors.
While Cortland managed to score three runs via three Oneonta errors in the top of the seventh, the Outlaws cruised to a 12-4 victory in game three to move on to the Eastern Division Championship Series.
David Ehmen (Wofford College) pitched six strong innings allowing an unearned run on five hits. The 6’2 righty from John’s Creek, Georgia, did not issue a single walk and sent nine Cortland batters back to the bench via the strikeout.
Bradley and Blonder led the Outlaws offensively in the doubleheader. The duo combined to go 12-for-17 with two doubles, four RBI, seven runs, two stolen bases and a walk.
Oneonta will host the Syracuse Jr. Chiefs, who defeated the top-seeded Syracuse Salt Cats, in game one of the Easter Division Championship series Wednesday at 7:00.
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