By PAUL GOTHAM
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Mitch Hoffower needed to prove himself. Rush-Henrietta’s starting pitcher didn’t waste the opportunity.
Hoffower worked in and out of trouble over seven complete, and the No. 6-seeded Royal Comets upended the No. 3 seed Penfield Patriots, 4-3 in Class AA quarter-final action Monday.
Hoffower, who led R-H with four wins during the regular season, allowed three runs on seven hits to get the Royal Comets back to the semi-finals after a one year absence.
“That’s definitely not an easy team (to pitch against),” the senior left-hander said of Penfield ranked No. 16 NYS Class AA. “It definitely took all seven innings. They tested us several times. They put the ball in plays. We just had to respond, try to limit the damage.”
Locating a hard biting curve ball, Hoffower struck out three, walked five and stranded eight runners on base. The result he got vastly differed from his performance on April 29th when that same Penfield team touched him for eight runs in a seven-run defeat.
“I definitely took this game pretty seriously. Curveball had to be working. It wasn’t working the first time. Having two pitches (working) makes it a completely different game. It’s just another pitch to have them guessing.”
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Hoffower was at his best limiting damage throughout the game.
Penfield’s Noah Wulforst doubled to lead the first, moved 90 feet on a sacrifice bunt and came home on a Ryan Kalbfus sacrifice fly. Wulforst started the third with a walk. Paul Cullen beat out a sacrifice bunt, and Kalbfus singled through the vacated spot on the left side when shortstop Casimer Sobaszek had to cover the bag at second. Hoffower set down the next three.
The Patriots Jack Taylor tripled on the first pitch of the fourth and scored one batter later on a Kyle Straube single to right field. But again Hoffower escaped the big inning getting a ground ball and strike out to end the threat.
“Mitch is the kid who every coach hopes he has on his team, and I’m the guy who actually does,” R-H coach Bill Rasmussen said. “That’s who Mitch is. I can’t say enough about him. It wasn’t easy today. We didn’t breeze through it, but he did exactly what he’s done for three years. He stayed under control and he stayed in control.”
Kalbfus doubled to start the fifth, and Jack Burke walked. Hoffower retired the next three setting up the breaking ball with a high fastball to get the final out of the inning.
“It was Mitch to go as long as he can,” Rasmussen noted. “We feel like he’s our guy. One thing you always know you’re going to get from him is a hundred percent effort, and you know you’re to get somebody who’s not going to back down to the situation in front of him.”
R-H scored three in the fourth, got the game winner in the fifth and Zach Harter had a hand in both innings. Harter delivered the go ahead run with one out in the fifth.
“We talk about making the other team beat you,” Rasmussen stated. “The only way you can do that is to put the ball in play and to challenge your opponent. When you do that, sometimes good things happen. He’s been able to do that for us all year.”
Harter, who hit .429 during the season and led Monroe County Division-1 with 13 extra-base hits, plated Lucas Haefner with a bad-hop single over the first baseman’s head.
“It gets the job done,” Harter said matter of factly. “If it gets the job done, I’m happy with it. He threw me two high and outside fastballs I kinda just waved at. I wasn’t going to go down striking out. I was putting the ball in play. I reached at it. Put it in play and stuff happens.”
Harter started a three-run fourth with a one-out single to left field. Chris Reed walked, and Jason Bocklage beat out an infield single to load the bases. One out later, Aaron Shoemaker got R-H on the scoreboard with a two-run single to right center.
“I was just trying to put it in play and make something happen,” Shoemaker explained. “Got to think up the middle, the other way. Can’t try and do too much.”
Bocklage came home with Rush-Henrietta’s first lead of the day when Justin Varney reached on an error.
“Obviously the most important win we’ve had all year,” Harter said. “Right now it’s do or die. We just came out hair on fire playing our best and tried to do what we can do.”
Class AA: Hoffower gets the game-ending double play. @RHvbaseball advances with a 4-3 victory. pic.twitter.com/nQLfcCYi3L
— Paul Gotham (@PickinSplinters) May 22, 2017
Rush-Henrietta (15-7), which edged Penfield (15-6) 10-9 on May 13th, will play No. 2 seed Fairport in Wednesday’s semi-final. The Red Raiders are ranked No. 19 NYS Class AA.
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