By ANTHONY SCOTT
SYRACUSE, N.Y. — The crowd was on the edge of their seats as the Junior Chiefs brought the winning run to the plate in Sam Little (Ithaca College). With one swing of the bat, the right fielder could tie the game. On a 1-0 count Little rocketed a ball deep into the night sky, the ball disappeared in the air and then it reappeared as it hit off the wall in right center field. Little missed a homer by a few feet but was on second and helped the Junior Chiefs get closer to pulling off the comeback as they trailed 5-3 in the bottom of the ninth.
The next batter for the J.Chiefs was Conner Lafferty (Desales), he was able to register a sacrifice fly to make it 5-4. After a walk to put runners on the corners with two outs the J.Chiefs’ second best average hitter, Anthony Seminaris (Mt. San Antonio) was up to the plate. Seminaris was stuck in a battle with Salt Cat closer Kyle Naugle (Onondaga CC). Naugle quickly got ahead 0-2 and with every foul ball that Seminaris was able to fight off the crowd got more and more anxious. Finally Naugle got Seminaris to ground out to first base to end the game and give the Salt Cats a 5-4 victory in New York Collegiate Baseball League action, Wednesday.
After a rainy afternoon in Syracuse the skies cleared up just in time for the Junior Chiefs to host the Salt Cats. Reliever Joseph DiNizio (Manhattan) got his first start of the season in a spot start situation. DiNizio did not get much help from his defense early on as their were runners on first and second with only one out due to a couple errors. Salt Cat center fielder Johnny Knight (Walsh) blooped a double down the right field line to score the game’s first run. Then Anthony Galanoudis (Molloy) used some situational hitting to score a runner from third on a ground out to give the Salt Cats a 2-0 lead after the first.
In the top of the third Shannon Baker (IUPUI) got aboard with a one-out double. Baker then manufactured a run on his own taking third on a wild pitch then scoring on a passed ball to make it a 3-0 Salt Cat lead.
“We were taught at school to read the ball out of the pither’s hand” Baker said, “If we see a downward angle we are getting aggresive at that point, and once I saw it hit the dirt I took off.”
Junior Chief starter, DiNizio, left the game after the fourth inning. He exited allowing three runs (zero earned), two hits, and two walks, while striking out seven.
“I found out yesterday I was starting and my mentality doesn’t really change, I just tried to throw strikes.” DiNizio said, “Errors are going to happen , it’s baseball, and you can’t do anything about it just keep throwing strikes.”
The Salt Cats bats did not quiet down in the fifth inning either as they were quick to jump on the Jr.Chief bullpen. After a leadoff walk and then a sacrifice bunt, Baker was up with a runner in scoring position. Baker went to the opposite field to score the runner from second and increase the visiting team’s lead to 4-0. After Baker was settled on third because of a couple wild pitches, Johnny Knight flew out to right field and scored Baker from third on a sac fly to give his team a commanding 5-0 lead.
Joe DeLuca (St. Rose) was able to extend his hitting streak to eleven and get the Junior Chiefs on the board in the bottom of the fifth with a rope down the first base line. The hit landed DeLuca on second with a two RBI double. DeLuca later scored on a Lafferty single and the Junior Chiefs were back in it, only down 5-3.
“I don’t want to think about the hitting streak, I’m just up there swinging.” DeLuca said, “We almost pulled it out today, we are doing everything we can. We just got to play clean baseball.”
The J-Chiefs threatened a couple more times to pull into the lead, but fell short and ended up on the wrong side of the scoreboard as Naugle got the save in a 5-4 victory for the Salt Cats.
Baker was solid from the plate going two-for-five with one RBI and three runs scored.
“We just got to believe in ourselves, it’s a grind.” Baker said after his team’s third straight win, “I think as a team we are starting to click a little bit more, moving runners over when we need to and then hitting them in.”
For the Junior Chiefs this was their second consecutive loss.
“We had three errors, it’s historical with us, these close games could be won very easily.” head coach Joe Antonio said, “It’s frustrating seeing the same stuff over and over again.”
Both teams will get a day off due to the NYCBL all-star game on Thursday.
The Salt Cats will be back on the diamond on Friday when they travel to Rome to take on the Generals for a double header that begins at 5:00 P.M.
For the Junior Chiefs, they will be at home Friday to welcome in the Cortland Crush for the last time of the season. First pitch is set for 7:00 P.M.
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