By ANTHONY SAMBROTTO
NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. — The Niagara Power showed right from the first pitch on Thursday that they weren’t ready for their summer baseball season to be over just yet.
Down a game in the best-0f-three series, the Power jumped to an early lead and held on to beat the Olean Oilers 12-8 to force a game three in the New York Collegiate Baseball League Western Division Championship Series.
Olean entered the game undefeated in the playoffs and have been the NYCBL’s hottest team through recent weeks. They also beat the Power in a convincing 12-6 win in game one and left the Power with their backs against the wall–but they responded.
“Before the game, Coach (Josh) Rebandt’s message to us was to take aggressive swings at the plate and that’s just what we did,” said left fielder Mason Irby (Jones County Junior College).
Irby and the rest of the Power followed Rebandt’s orders early by scoring four runs in the bottom of the first on five consecutive singles all with two outs. Conner Combs (East Texas Baptist University), Jessep Polk (North Greenville University), Paul Bretton (Florida Southern College), and Caleb Thomas (Colorado School of Mines) each had an RBI in the inning to put the Power ahead 4-0.
“We brought a little bit of momentum from the end of the game yesterday and that four-run first inning for us really sparked it,” said Power manager Josh Rebandt.
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With the Oilers cutting the lead in half in the top of the third, the Power responded with back-to-back RBI doubles from Polk and Thomas to put them back up by four.
The Power kept the scoring going in the fourth, not only chasing Olean starter Aaron Phillips (St. Bonaventure), but putting up four runs and making it into a seemingly insurmountable 10-2 lead.
However, Olean didn’t quit and began to make things interesting in the later innings. Scoring three in the seventh and two in the eighth, the Oilers cut the Power lead to 10-7 against a struggling Niagara bullpen.
With the bases loaded a half an inning later, Thomas came through again for the Power with a two-RBI single to give Niagara a 12-7 lead.
The Oilers did their best to once again claw their way back, even loading the bases in the ninth inning, but could only manage one run and fell by a final of 12-8.
Over the first two games of this series, their have been a combined 38 runs scored on 57 hits. Don’t adjust your glasses, you read those numbers correctly.
“This time of the year hitters are really focused,” Rebandt said. “I don’t think any hitter in our division or the other division is giving up at-bats.”
The box score was a hitter’s delight, with two Power players (Thomas and Hayes) getting three RBI and Dan Pellinen (Friends University) getting three for the Oilers. Combs had the most hits for either team with four, but teammate Mason Irby had him beat by reaching base five times.
Also, with the conclusion of Thursday’s game, there is now only one Power batter that is hitting under .300 for the playoffs.
A.J. Bruner (Trinity International University) picked up the win on Thursday going six innings and giving up seven runs on nine hits.
The Power will turn to Brandon Mumaw (St. Leo University) for the deciding game three. Their ace has already thrown a complete game in these playoffs with a first round performance where he allowed only two runs against the Hornell Dodgers.
“It gets our guys a lot of confidence, he’s our horse,” Rebandt said. “To have (Mumaw) starting a huge game like Friday is a big confidence booster for our guys. We have our top of the rotation guy going, our bullpen will be rested… I feel really good going into (Friday).”
Game three will be Friday night at 7p.m. at Bradner Stadium in Olean. The winner will face the Oneonta Outlaws of the Eastern Division for the NYCBL championship series, which starts on Saturday.
“Our approach tomorrow will be very similar(to tonight’s) and everyone will all be ready to do whatever necessary to help the team win,” Irby said.” This is agreat group of guys that are all more concerned with playing for the Lord and the man beside them rather than for themselves and I think that mindset has paid off and will continue to.”
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