By MIKAEL DeSANTO
WEBSTER, N.Y. — Brooks Pitaniello (Harding University) paced the offense with a double and two RBI, and the Rochester Ridgemen beat the Hornell Dodgers 5-3 in their first game of the 2016 New York Collegiate Baseball League season at Basket Road Field, Tuesday.
“It was awesome getting to get out here and play with the guys,” Pitaniello said. ” We’ve got a great group of guys here and it’s just been really fun getting to know each other.”
Head coach Justin Dillard also focused on the team work aspects of the game, saying that the team had become very close, ever since the start of the teams three-day training camp.
“The unity that they’re already showing right now and the joy they’re already playing with,” Dillard said “Win, lose or draw, man, that’s hard to beat.”
The Ridgemen sent right-hander Reagan Lucia (Lubbock Christian University) to the mound for the start while the Dodgers countered with lefty Brian Feinauer (Saginaw Valley State University). Lucia opened the game with a strikeout and picked up the final two outs in the top of the first with groundouts, a recurring theme for Lucia early in the game.
“I was just going inside on the batters, and then throw some off speeds and they just pound it right into the ground,” Lucia said.
Feinauer struggled early with his control, hitting Cameron Maxwell (Hillsdale College) in the first and Devin Cerrato (Covenant College) in the second. He and Dodgers head coach Jake Kenney attributed the control issues with Feinauer’s recovery from a back injury.
“This is actually the first time I’ve been on the mound (in) three months,” Feinauer said. “So getting back in the rhythm was tough for me.”
The Ridgemen struck early, putting up two runs in the second inning following Cerrato being hit. After Jared Piper (Hillsdale College) singled and advanced to second, moving Cerrato to third, a sacrifice ground ball to second by George Brown (Ohio Wesleyan University) drove in the run and gave the team their first run of the season. Bram Wood (Olney Central College) followed with a walk, putting runners on the corners. Wood and Piper would then complete a double steal, with Piper stealing home following the attempted throw-out of Wood at second.
“They ran the bases well,” Dillard said of his team. “As a whole they were offensively aggressive.”
Lucia ran into trouble with two outs in the top of the third as the Dodgers loaded the bases with singles by Zach Lopatka (Lackawanna College), Tyler Burns (Trevecca Nazarene University) and Adam Fitzgibbon (Saginaw Valley State University). Lucia escaped the jam without giving up a run, forcing Tanner Klein (Mansfield University) to fly out to right field.
“I’ve been there before of ‘hey, I know I can get through this without any damage, so let’s go after them’,” Lucia said.
The teams traded runs in the fourth inning, with Andy Brahier (University of Wisconsin Oshkosh) scoring on a Ridgemen throwing error and Brown scoring on a sacrifice fly by Pitaniello. The Dodgers pulled to within one run in the top of the sixth on a single by Joseph Cerda (Oklahoma Panhandle State University), which drove in Dylan May (Wofford College).
“He (the pitcher) got down in the count early, so I was looking for my pitch,” Cerda said. “He gave it to me, so I put it up the middle.”
The Ridgemen replied by extending their lead with two runs in the bottom of the sixth on a double by Pitaniello, scoring Wood, and a single by Maxwell, which drove in Pitaniello. The Dodgers finished the scoring for the evening with one run in the seventh when Tage Johnson (Houghton College) plated Klein with a double, but the team would not be able to close the gap any further.
Following a walk to Klein, Carson Ferry (Northland College) would strike out Brahier, Johnson and May in order to end the game and pick up the save.
“We didn’t get the big hit when we needed it,” Kenney said.
Ethan Luna (Southwestern University) went 2-for-4 for the game.
Connor Brandon went 1-for-4 with one run batted in.
Matt Fontneau pitched four innings, surrendering two runs on six hits, stuck out one batter and was credited with the win.
Jake Miller came in for the final two innings, surrendering no runs or hits to the Ridgemen, while striking out two.
The Ridgemen will take on the Dodgers Wednesday night at Maple City Park in Hornell at 7 p.m.
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