By PAUL GOTHAM
OLEAN, N.Y. — So much for best-selling books which encourage readers to avoid sweating the small stuff. For Bobby Bell it’s all about the little things.
And how they add up.
Austin Bizzle (Alabama St.) fashioned a complete-game gem, and Championship Series Most Valuable Player Isaac Dillard (Gulf Coast CC) delivered again as the Olean Oilers swept the 2015 New York Collegiate Baseball League Championship Series with a 4-2 victory over the Oneonta Outlaws in front of 2,525 rabid fans at Bradner Stadium, Sunday night.
After hovering at or below .500 for most of the season, the Oilers won 14 of their last 17 contests including six of seven playoff games. No one knows better than Bell that this was a collection of details coming together at the right time.
“We had the skills. We had the talent,” Bell said after claiming the organization’s first league championship. “I kept telling these guys ‘if we break down the game and do the simple things – field well, take good at bats, throw strikes do those little things well something great will happen.’ That’s all we started doing. We had a lot energy into those little things, and it all added up to this.”
One of those little things included Bizzle’s appearance on the mound in game two of the best-of-three series. The Olean hurler led the Oilers’ to a win over the Geneva Twins in game one of the Western Divisional Series last Sunday. He was coming off three days rest, threw 125 pitches and figured he had made his last appearance on the hill for the summer. He returned home to Florida and attended to pressing academic matters.
Sunday morning, Bizzle woke in Fort Myers. He arrived in Olean hours before first pitch. At that point, it was a matter of settling into his rhythm.
“I knew it might take me like an inning or two to find an arm slot back something like that and just get things going back in order,” said the the 6-1 right-hander. “Other than that I was fine. Just getting back in the groove of things. Getting back on the mound.”
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Bizzle, who went 4-3 during the regular season with a 2.39 ERA, allowed one earned run on eight hits. He struck out five and walked three.
He surrendered a leadoff hit to start the game, but Tyler Bruno (Iona) was thrown out at third trying to stretch a double into a triple. It was one of five hits Oneonta collected in the first three innings.
The Outlaws got a run on the board in third without making solid contact. Tyler Martic (Siena) led the frame with a walk. Bruno looked to move the runner with a sacrifice. His bunt landed just inside the first baseline, and the speedy second baseman reached base. One out later, Zachary Krider (USC-Upstate) brought home a run when his cue shot off the end of the bat got through the right side of the infield.
“Early on I was leaving my slider up and they were hitting little “judies” off the slider,” Bizzle explained. “I just kind of abandoned that and started going fastball, fastball, fastball. I would mix in a slider and sneak one in.”
Bizzle struck out the side in the fifth. He needed five pitches to end the sixth. After a hiccup in the seventh, he retired six of the last seven batters he faced.
That Bizzle performed so well in an important spot came as no surprise to Bell. It was Bizzle who wanted the ball on opening night, Sunday’s outing put bookends on the season.
“In January he called me and said ‘I want the ball in game one. I’m not coming out,’” Bell said recalling Bizzle’s complete game victory over then reigning champion Hornell on May 30th. “Yesterday, I called him and I said ‘hey, we got you a flight. You’re getting the ball.’ He was all about it. He was like ‘tell me where and when. I’m coming.”
For the second night in a row, Dillard provided the damage. The Olean centerfielder capped a three-run fifth with a two-out double down the left field line.
“I was sitting fastball, and, you know, react off speed,” Dillard explained. “I looked from outside to in. He kinda hung the curve ball high and inside.”
Dillard plated Mike Fahrman (University of Florida) and Cole Peterson (St. Bonaventure) with his third hit and fifth RBI of the series.
“I stayed short to the ball,” he said. “I just tried to get my hands out in front. I just tried to do what I could with it.”
It was Dillard who came through with a bases-clearing triple in the third inning of game one as Olean took a 4-0 lead on the way to a 7-1 triumph.
“Ike struggled a little bit toward the end of the year,” Bell noted. “So he’s been kinda down a little bit. He got that big hit last night and then to come back a do it again tonight. You know he’s a kid who works so hard all summer. He’s there for early swings. He’s in the weight room. He’s doing a little bit of extra work. He’s doing the extra stretching and stuff like that. For that kid like that to come out and play in the championship the way he did was extremely exciting. I’m so proud of him.”
Bubba Hollins started the rally with a one-out base on balls. It was one of three straight free passes issued by Oneonta starter, David Ehmen (Wofford). Peterson, the Championship Series Offensive MVP, brought home the first run when he beat out a potential inning-ending double play with a dive into first beating the throw.
“I just wanted to put the ball in play and get the run in,” Peterson stated. “I looked at the second baseman when he fielded it. I knew I had to get going. I don’t know if I would have beaten if I hadn’t slid. I decided I was going to get down. I think I got there quicker.”
“If he’s not safe there I don’t score,” Hollins commented. “That kid just doesn’t miss. He never misses. He’s the biggest competitor I’ve ever played with. I absolutely love him. He does everything right.”
Hollins, who turned in a series of spectacular defensive plays at third base in game one, garnered Defensive MVP honors for the series. He came through again in game two. With two on and a run in during the third, he started an inning-ending double play to stop the Outlaws’ momentum.
Oneonta was looking to win its second title in three years and third since 2011. The Outlaws defeated Olean in the 2013 semi-finals before going on to claim its second crown in franchise history.
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