By PAUL GOTHAM
HONEOYE FALLS, N.Y. — With two outs in the fifth inning, Rayson Miller starter Lukas Haefner turned toward the third base dugout and with three fingers pointing upward called out to head coach Tom Sapienza.
“Three more, coach?”
Comfortably ahead in the opening game of the best two-of-three series of the American Legion semifinals, Haefner had one thing in mind: being eligible to take the mound Tuesday in the first game of the championship series. Staying within the pitch maximums became a priority.
“It was pitch count, trying to stay under 80 (pitches),” Haefner said after Rayson-Miller’s 11-0 victory over Greece Post. “Unfortunately I was a couple pitches short (of pitching five full innings).
The right-hander will take it. After striking out eight and allowing just a two-out infield single in the fourth, the Finger Lakes CC hurler has his sights set on getting Rayson Miller its second straight District 7 title.
“It allows me to throw Tuesday if we get to it in the championship game,” Haefner added.
Haefner fanned the first two batters of the game before issuing back-to-back walks. Buckling knees with his breaking ball, he then set down nine of the next 10 batters he faced.
“Early on I wasn’t really feeling my fastball,” Haefner explained. “I figured I’d start working my off-speed more, and it was just one of those days.”
A one-out error in the second was the only batter to reach during the stretch.
“He’s a remarkable talent,” Sapienza said of his 5-foot-9 starter. “He’s a great example of what makes baseball great. You do not have to be a genetic mutant to be very good at baseball. He ain’t that. He’s a gamer.”
Haefner retired five of the last seven batters he faced on strikes.
Maxx Countryman set down the four batters he faced in a game that was called in the sixth inning.
Peyton Parameter reached base all five times he came to the plate and scored five runs. The Rayson Miller third baseman led the second with a walk and moved to second on a wild pitch. Hayden Smith moved the runner with a sacrifice bunt, and Donnie Varrenti brought home the game’s first run with a squeeze bunt.
“We just try to keep our energy up,” Haefner noted. “We just try and tell all the guys ‘everything’s not going to go our way.'”
Smith drove in a run and later scored as part of four-run fourth to give Rayson Miller a commanding lead.
Owen VanNewkirk reached on an error to start a three-run fifth.
VanNewkirk connected on back-to-back run-scoring doubles in the sixth.
The two teams will continue the series on Saturday with a 9 AM first pitch scheduled at victor High School.
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