By MIKAEL DeSANTO
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Mark McKenna (Canisius College) drove in two runs and scored another as the Genesee Rapids defeated the Rochester Ridgemen, 7-3 in New York Collegiate Baseball League action Thursday night at Basket Road Field.
“We’ve been playing well the last couple days, the bats have been coming alive and we haven’t been trying to do too much,” McKenna said. “Everyone’s been doing their job and we just keep doing what we are doing.”
Rapids head coach Sam Bashiom said his team’s performance represented the continuing improvement of his team recently and they continue to do things to stay in games.
“We’ve been really turning it around lately, the last five or six games we’ve really been doing well,” Bashiom said. “We’ve been swinging the bats well and even when we’re not getting on base, getting hits, they’re productive outs, we’re going deep in counts, we’re moving runners over, so it’s really making a big difference for us.”
Wes Brown (William Carey University) took the mound for the Rapids, making his fourth start of the season and second against the Ridgemen, while Luke Chevalier (Northern State University) toed the rubber for the Ridgemen, making his fourth start of the year and also his second against the Rapids. Chevalier worked many two strike counts in his five innings of work but struggled to finish, giving up five runs, three unearned, on six hits with two walks and six strikeouts.
“I was off on four days rest and I was definitely not having my best stuff,” Chevalier said. “I’d obviously like to have an extra day, but with the grind you always need to have a little bit of sacrifice, so I was just trying to get ahead of batters, but my off-speed was kind of coming out flat, they were getting it and we were making a couple errors.”
Meanwhile Brown settled in early and kept consistent throughout his start, going seven innings and surrendering one run on seven hits with a walk and seven strikeouts.
“The main thing was just getting ahead, when you get ahead you can work with a lot of different pitches,” Brown said. “You really have to stay ahead of hitters, you can’t really have just a fastball, you have to have other pitches to pitch at this collegiate level.”
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The Rapids broke through early in the game, plating three runs in the second and two more in the fourth. In the second inning the Rapids loaded the bases with a single by Phillip Wells (Baldwin-Wallace College). Allen Murphy (St. John Fisher College) reached on a fielder’s choice and Brian Hodges (Niagara County Community College) walked. Wells scored when Judah Wollenburg (University of Rio Grande) got hit by a pitch, and Murphy and Hodges scored on an error.
McKenna drove in Jacob Burlingame (Canisius College) and Hodges with a triple in the fourth.
“The umpire was calling a little outside a lot, and I struck out my first at bat because of that, so my next at bat I kind of adjusted for that, knew it was coming,” McKenna said. “I saw that pitch, outside, and I kind of let it get deep and took it down the line for a triple.”
The Ridgemen picked up a run of their own in the fifth inning. Devan O’Bryan (Drury University) reached base on a two-out single, stole second base and scored when Nathan Methvin (Tyler Junior College) connected for a base hit.,
Genesee led 5-1.
“I had actually forgotten my batting gloves in the dugout, so I was just trying to flip something into left field and try to score him,” Methvin said. “He hung a curveball and that’s pretty much what I did, it was just nothing too hard, it just kind of fell and the run scored, it was more lucky than anything.”
But the Rapids got two runs back in the top of the sixth after they loaded the bases again. Wollenburg and McKenna both were hit by pitches, pinch hitter Grant Myers (Monmouth College) walked and Wollenburg scored when Joseph Chapman (Cedarville University) walked. After the Ridgemen got two outs, William Lucas worked a walk allowing McKenna to score and putting them up 7-1.
“As a team we’ve been trying to see more pitches, trying to get pitches that are more in the zone, and we really want to have the pitcher work out there,” Lucas said. “It was pretty easy to pick up the ball today and I think that was very helpful.”
The Ridgemen were able to score two more runs in the eighth inning on a pair of singles. Ethan Luna (Southwestern University) tripled with one out and scored the following at bat when Devin Cerrato (Covenant College) singled. Cerrato advanced to second on a stolen base while Joe Done (Skagit Valley College) was at bat and Done drove him in with a single of his own, the final run of the night.
Justin Dillard, the Ridgemen’s head coach, said that the game was an example of when the Ridgemen were not at their best and that there is a clear difference in how they played, and how they can play.
“At this point they’re not even tough losses, you go, you play the game and, either you’re sharp and you play well or you’re sloppy and through the motions,” Dillard said. “The scoreboard sometimes connects to it, sometimes it doesn’t, so today it was probably more through the motions than it was on our game.”
Christian Jorden (Jefferson Community College) pitched two innings of relief for the Rapids, giving up two runs on three hits.
Carson Ferry (Northland College) relieved Chevalier, but registered no innings pitched, being credited with both of the runs in the sixth.
Cerrato, O’Bryan and Casey Claflin (University of Northwestern Ohio), part of what Dillard calls “the militia bullpen” (position players that are brought in to pitch), combined for four innings of relief while surrendering no runs on three hits with two walks and two strikeouts.
With the win, Genesee breaks a tie between the two teams for last place in the Western Division, the Rapids improving to 6-15 and the Ridgemen sliding to 5-16 on the season.
The two teams shift locations and meet at the Kerr-Pegula Athletic Complex, Friday at 7 p.m.
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