By RAEGAN RYAN
HOUGHTON, N.Y. – The Genesee Rapids swept a doubleheader from the Rochester Ridgemen, 3-1/4-0 Saturday night in New York Collegiate Baseball League play at the Kerr-Pegula Athletic Complex.
Allen Murphy (St. John Fisher) pitched a complete game in the opener for the Rapids, allowing one run on five hits.
“Allen was efficient. He only threw 85 pitches. We told him he could keep pitching if he kept his pitch count low. I think he took that as a challenge and finished it out for us, really well.” commented coach Sam Bashioum. “We’ve matured a lot since we started in May. We have two high school players, Murphy being one, and he’s done well adjusting to playing against college level players like you saw tonight.”
Judah Wollenburg (Rio Grande) went 2-for-4 while Mark McKenna (Canisius), Wes Brown (Willam Carey), and Jon Nola (Walsh) each notched one RBI.
The Genesee defense finished game one with zero errors to round out the 3-1 win over the Ridgemen.
After the break, the Rapids pitching continued to dominate in the second game. Jacob Burlingame (Canisius) tossed a no hitter for the first four innings of play. Christian Jorden (Jefferson CC) maintained the shutout, only giving up two hits while striking out two.
Breton LaRose (Sacred Heart) brought it home in the bottom of the sixth inning striking out two and retiring the side.
“All four pitchers were very efficient tonight,” Bashioum added. “We always talk about the difference between being efficient in the strike zone and being efficient in throwing quality strikes to get guys to ground out or get weaker contact. The Ridgemen did get a hold of the ball but our defense did a great job making plays when the ball was put in play.”
The Rapids took game two with a 4-0 spread.
Brown finished with two RBI in the second game with one of those coming from a suicide squeeze play.
“Wes is very good with handling the bat. I called him for the suicide squeeze and put that down well. I trust him to be able to do that. He had an RBI single earlier and that helped, no doubt.” continued Coach Bashiom.
Hovering around the halfway point, the Rapids hear a “4-2” speech from their coaching staff.
“If we can go 4-2 like we did last week, each week from here on out, we could earn a spot in the playoffs,” Bashioum explained. “Right now we are at 3-2 on the week and if we pick up a win tomorrow we are at 4-2 again for the second straight week. Right where we want to be.”
The Rapids host the Syracuse JR Chiefs Sunday at 2p.m.
Leave a Reply