By PAUL GOTHAM
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Winners of five of six including a victory over division-leading Penfield earlier in the week, the Fairport baseball team was gathering steam. Any of that previous momentum seemed to disappear midway through Wednesday night’s game.
The Red Raiders, though, found another gear.
Trailing by five, Fairport took advantage of Penfield generosity to send the game into extra innings. A pair of seniors delivered from there.
“Our theme for this year is ‘united,'” head coach Brian Reed said after Faiport’s 10-9 victory over Penfield in nine innings. “I told them ‘it’s easy to be united when you’re winning. Now we’re not. Let’s find out how united we really are.’
“The guys showed it. They battled back from very adverse conditions.”
Omar Rosa plated Mike Sabatine with a one-out double, and Fairport set up a potential three-way tie for the Monroe County Division I title.
With Sabatine on third base, Rosa was looking for a pitch to drive to the right side. Instead the senior infielder turned on a 1-1 pitch for a double to left field.
“I was trying to drive it opposite,” Rosa said with a smile. “I found a pitch I could hit and went with it.”
The duo combined for four hits and four runs on the night. Sabatine, who tripled to start the game, reached on a ground-rule double into the left field corner to lead the ninth.
“I was just trying to get on base,” said the speedy Sabatine who was well on his way to third when his hit crawled under the fence 373 feet away. “It was an 0-1 curveball. They were trying to pitch me away.”
Tyler Smith moved his teammate 90 feet with a sacrifice bunt to set up Rosa.
“That’s why they’re at the top of the lineup,” Reed said of Sabatine and Rosa. “I want them to get as many at bats as they can.
“Mike Sabatine is batting over .500. That’s why he’s up there. Omar’s been coming through for us all year long.”
Josh Van Bramer hurled three shutout innings in relief for the win. The junior left-hander struck out four, allowed one hit and faced one batter over the minimum. Of his 41 pitches, 28 were strikes.
“He has been coming on all year long,” Reed said. “He can throw strikes with three different pitches. He’s confident with three different pitches. When you’re got that, you can keep batters off-balance and guessing and that’s what he does.”
Fairport improved to 5-3 (9-6 overall) in division play. Penfield fell to 6-3 (12-5). Victor defeated Rush-Henrietta to finish the divisional portion of their schedule at 7-3 (12-5). Penfield hosts Rush-Henrietta next Thursday. Fairport closes the division with a pair of games against Gates-Chili.
The Red Raiders jumped to a three-run lead in the first inning. Sabatine tripled. Smith singled him home. Rosa walked. Two outs later, Devin Marshall singled to score a run, and Jake Schuler reached on an error to make it 3-0.
Gage Ziehl highlighted a seven-run Penfield third with a bases-clearing double. Bobby Bradley and AJ Kimmins followed with RBI singles, and Danny Stapleton doubled home another run.
Bradley walked and eventually scored on a wild pitch in the fourth. Stapleton reached on a one-out bunt single in the fifth and came around to score to make it a 9-4 game.
“It’s easy to say there was doubt,” Sabatine remarked about being down five runs. “But not with this team. This a special group.”
Sabatine worked a one-out walk to start the Fairport sixth. It was the first of three free passes in a half inning which included a hit by pitch, an error and a balk to bring home the tying run.
“I told the guys at the end of the game I had my speech all ready to go. ‘Hey, we didn’t deserve to win this game. We gotta figure it out. We got a game tomorrow,'” Reed said. “Then the game happened. We could have easily folded up, and we didn’t.”
Sabatine finished 2-for-3 with two walks and three runs scored. Rosa was 2-for-5 with a walk and a run. Smith had two RBI and scored twice. Schuler crossed home twice. Tyler Holmes was 2-for-5 with a walk, RBI and a run. Van Bramer had a hit and run scored.
Penfield’s Brendan Miller was 2-for-3 with a double, a walk and a run scored. Stapleton was 2-for-4 with two runs scored. Ben Harrison walked twice, had a hit and scored a run.
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