By ANTHONY SAMBROTTO
HORNELL, N.Y. — Niagara Power manager Josh Rebandt predicted after game one and game two’s lopsided scored that game three would be close. The final score proved Rebandt correct, but his Power team had complete control for nearly all of Tuesday’s game.
The Power held off a ninth inning rally by the Hornell Dodgers to win 9-7 at Maple City Park and advance to the New York Collegiate Baseball League Western Division Championship series.
The Dodgers won game two of the series 7-1, but all good vibes from that game quickly ran out.
The Power jumped to a three run lead in the top of the first off of Hornell starter Connor Ryan (Mercyhurst) behind four base hits and two stolen bases. The inning finally ended when the Power failed on their third stolen base attempt.
“I just wanted to stay aggressive,” Rebandt said. “Tommy (LaCongo) is a great catcher but we just wanted to continue to put pressure on him and that’s what we believe has gotten us to this point. We make a lot outs on the base paths, I’ll be the first to admit that but we will continue to be aggressive the rest of the way.”
Caleb Lang (Cairn), Conner Combs (East Texas Baptist) and Jessep Polk (North Greenville University) each had an RBI single in the first for the Power.
Despite the early hole, the defending champion Dodgers fought their way back with runs in the bottom of the first, third, and fifth to tie the game at three.
However, the tie ball game would be short-lived as the Power put up a five-spot in the top of the sixth.
With the bases loaded and no outs, designated hitter Paul Bretton (Florida Southern College) cleared the bases on a 0-2 count to put the Power up for good.
Bretton, who has six hits in the playoffs thus far, tried not to put any pressure on himself in the crucial at-bat.
“Honestly, I just tried to go up there and take the same approach that I do with every other at-bat, ” he said. “I just wanted to stay focused on seeing the pitch and trying to find something that I liked because I knew he wasn’t going to give me much to hit.”
The scoring didn’t stop there, with first baseman Caleb Thomas (Colorado School of Mines) driving Bretton home with a single on the next at-bat and coming around to score himself on a wild pitch later in the inning. The Power closed out the inning leading 8-3.
While the Niagara offense was going to work, starter Nathan Robinson (Cedarville University) held the Dodgers in check. Robinson only allowed five hits through seven innings of work, striking out six and allowing three runs (one earned).
“He has been battling some stuff, nothing major, but I told him that I just wanted him to be healthy heading back to school and he goes, ‘coach this is important,'” Rebandt said. “And that to me said it that he really wanted the ball and is a gamer and we set it up that if there was a game three he was getting the ball.”
Dallas Deavers (University of North Georgia) pitched a scoreless eighth for the Power and with the team leading comfortably now with a 9-3 lead, they turned things over to Nick Campe (Olivet Nazarene University).
That is when things got interesting. Campe, an NYCBL all-star, has struggled of late, and Tuesday was no different.
After loading the bases with one out, Trevor Thompson (Ithaca) did his best Paul Bretton impersonation and cleared them with a double.
Thompson then came around to score on a wild pitch a few batters later to make it 9-7, Niagara.
With the tying run at the plate and the threat of blowing a six-run lead, Campe got Garrett Prossner (Baylor) to pop up and end the game.
“It’ll give me some gray hairs, that’s for sure,” Rebandt said. “I have a lot already and it’s games like this that will keep filling them up but I’m really proud of our guys.”
“Right from the get-go we scored three runs and said ‘here we go’,” Robinson said. “We knew we could beat them and they are a tough team that plays hard and we knew we had to score a lot of runs to beat them and we did.”
For the Dodgers, the chance to repeat as champions fell short. It also marked the end of longtime coach Tom Kenney’s tenure with the team. Kenney did lead the Dodgers to the NYCBL’s best regular season record
“When you have the top four teams in the division, anybody can beat anybody,” Kenney said. “Hats off to them. They outplayed us. We played great last night to bring it here…We had enough to win. We had the tying run at the plate. They battled, gave it everything they had. We probably got as far along in the battle as we had bullets for. What are you going to do.”
Kenney said after the game this was his last season as manager.
The Power will have a little more than a bus ride to enjoy this win before starting the Western Division Championship series Wednesday in Olean against the Oilers. The Oilers finished as the third seed and will have home field advantage in round two of the best-of-three series.
“We’re set, we’re ready to go and we are excited, ” Bretton said. “We saw them out here watching us tonight and I’m glad they came and we are ready to play some baseball against them because they are a good team as well. They are going to give us a fight for our money, and we are going to come out and give them that fight.”
First pitch for game one will be at 7 p.m. at Bradner Stadium. Game two will be Thursday night in Niagara Falls and, if f necessary, game three will be back in Olean on Friday.
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