By ANTHONY SCOTT
SYRACUSE, N.Y. — The Syracuse Junior Chiefs arrived back home from their double-header in Rome at around 2 A.M on Tuesday morning. However there was no hangover from their late night, and they came out ready to play against the Sherrill Silversmiths later that day.
The Junior Chiefs were able to squeak out a 3-2 victory over the Silversmiths in New York Collegiate Baseball League action at Alliance Stadium.
After the win Syracuse manager Joe Antonio praised his guys, “The team doesn’t stop… for summer baseball this is the most energy I’ve ever seen a team have.”
In the bottom of the second inning the Junior Chiefs were threatening with men on first and second and nobody out. Tyler Patane (St. Thomas Aquinas) was asked to sacrifice bunt and he executed, but the Silversmiths tried to get the lead runner at third and the throw was not handled cleanly, the ball carried into foul territory toward left field and one run scored. Webb Little (Ithaca College) was up next as he quickly cleared the bases with a two-run double. W.Little finished 2-for-3 with two doubles.
Junior Chiefs starter Jimmy Skiff (Purdue Univ. Calumet) was cruising along until the top half of the fourth when the Silversmiths rallied off four straight singles. The last of the four hits was an RBI single delivered by Darren Hasch (Fort Scott). Skiff was able to limit the damage in the inning allowing only one other run to score.
Skiff got the win behind six innings of work in which he allowed two runs, six hits, and two walks while striking out five.
Silversmiths starter Zachary Durant (Siena) found himself in trouble in the bottom of the fourth as their were runners on second and third with no outs. Durant stayed strong and fooled the Junior Chiefs hitters to the tune of three straight strikeouts to get out of inning.
Trailing 3-2, Silversmiths manager Jim Hegmann elected to go with reliever Alexander Varaksa, (Lackawanna Col.) and he quieted the Chiefs’ bats. Varaksa struck out three over four innings of work while only allowing two infield singles.
“Every time I give him the ball I know he gives us a chance to stay in it,” is what Jim Hegmann had to say about Varaksa’s performance.
However Sherrill was not able to climb back, the Junior Chiefs had a dominant pitcher of their own in the bullpen. Joseph Ditorrice II (Manhattan) was called upon for the four-out save and to secure the Chiefs’ 3-2 lead. He did just that using only 12 pitches (11 strikes) as he tossed a perfect inning and a third to end the game.
Ditorrice said after the game, “I was really feeling my fastball today, I didn’t have to use too many sliders because they couldn’t catch up.”
The Silversmiths have now lost five straight, and Jim Hegmann said to his team after Tuesday’s game, “We gotta start believing we can win these games, we can’t just show up to the ballpark and expect it to be handed to us”
The Sherill Silversmiths will look to get off the five-game skid on Thursday when they host the same Junior Chiefs team.
As for the Junior Chiefs, the win improves their record to 3-3 on the year and they will be at home again on Wednesday to take on the Syracuse Salt Cats.
Leave a Reply