By JAMES HADNOT
SYRACUSE, N.Y. — For the second night in a row, the Syracuse Salt Cats found themselves with a chance to win in the bottom of the ninth inning. Down 6-3 with the bases loaded, a strikeout from Joe DiTorrice II (Manhattan College) ended the rally and the Syracuse Jr. Chiefs topped the Salt Cats in New York Collegiate Baseball League action at Onondaga Community College.
The win clinched a playoff spot for the Junior Chiefs but Manager Joe Antonio is looking for the big prize.
“If we can win out we’re going to be right there,” said Syracuse Jr. Chiefs Manager, Joe Antonio. “We still got an eye on first place and anything can happen.”
Offensively, the Junior Chiefs put up runs in the second, third, and fourth innings to build a 5-1 lead. The biggest inning was the fourth when the Junior Chiefs scored three runs. Nicholas Roy (Nichols College) worked a based-loaded walk to score the first run of the inning. After a Webb Little (Ithaca College) RBI sacrifice fly scored the second run, Joe DeLuca (College of St. Rose) recorded his second RBI of the day on a double.
Matthew Sandoval (Purdue University-Calumet) had a strong outing on the mound going six plus innings allowing just two runs, neither of which were earned on four hits. Sandoval also fanned 10 batters and walked five.
“Our pitching has always been there and what I was so happy about today was our bullpen especially Dinizio,” said Syracuse Jr. Chiefs Manager, Joe Antonio. “This was a good morale booster for him.”
Joseph Dinizio (Manhattan College) came on in relief of Jason Wasilnak (St. John Fisher College) and pitched an inning and two-thirds allowing one earned run on two hits.
“He’s worked hard and you like to see a kid get better and get ready for his college and so forth,” said Antonio. “I was so happy for him.”
With the win, the Junior Chiefs move to just three and a half games behind the Cortland Crush for the top spot in the Eastern Division. The loss pushes the Salt Cats record to (20-20) on the season and they stay six and a half games behind the Crush.
The Salt Cats magic number to clinch a post-season spot is three.
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