By PAUL GOTHAM
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Batavia baseball put crooked numbers on the scoreboard in four straight innings, and Bronx Buchholz hurled a complete game as the Blue Devils won their third straight with a 13-4 victory over Eastridge in Monroe County Division IV action, Wednesday.
After trailing 2-0 early in the contest, Batavia executed a suicide squeeze play in the third inning, and Vince Grazioplene scored the go-ahead run on Aidan Anderson’s bunt.
The Blue Devils eventually scored eight straight.
“We talk about winning each inning,” head coach James Patric said. “On Monday (a 10-4 win over Eastridge) we did the same thing. Won six out of seven innings. Today we bounced back after giving up two in the first and did a great job.”
Aidan Anderson and Vince Grazioplene execute a suicide squeeze to give @BHSScores a 3-2 lead with 1 out in the third. pic.twitter.com/gNPpgfTTHP
— Paul Gotham (@PickinSplinters) May 4, 2022
How Batavia goes about winning is just as important as the end result.
The Blue Devils put the game out of reach in the fifth on a play that started with a dropped third strike.
Leadoff man Parker Kleinbach swung and missed at a breaking ball for the third strike of the at-bat. The ball, though, bounced into the turf and out of the batter’s box. Kleinbach alertly headed to first. When the Eastridge catcher could not immediately find the ball along the backstop, the Blue Devils’ third baseman moved another 90 feet to second base.
“Today, there were four huge heads-up plays that really sparked us on offense,” Patric said referring to Kleinbach getting on base to start the fifth and Anderson’s suicide squeeze in the second.
Parker Kleinbach reaches on a dropped 3rd and scores on this Cole Grazioplene sacrifice fly. @BHSScores 7-2. pic.twitter.com/PxH0hJYp8y
— Paul Gotham (@PickinSplinters) May 4, 2022
The second-year head coach attributed those efforts to work in Tuesday’s practice.
“At practice yesterday, we walked the field. Sometimes you can rep things over and over again and you don’t get the same look, the same throw from the pitcher or the same hit or the same result.
“We walked to first and said ‘this is what we want to do out of the box.’ With runners on base, this is where we should be. If the first baseman’s here, this is where we should be. We went to second base and third and at the plate. We talked about every situation to try increase our baseball IQ.”
In a five-run sixth, two more of those plays occurred. Sawyer Siverling beat out a ground ball to left side of the infield, and Jesse Reinhart forced a rushed play that resulted in an error later in the inning.
“Any time we hit the ball down hard, we have to get out of the box as quick as we can,” Patric noted. “These guys have worked really, really hard. They have showed up every day. They’re learning.”
Buchholz, a ninth-grader, struck out 10. After allowing a pair to score in the first, the right-hander did not allow a runner past second for the next four innings, and he retired the side in order in the seventh.
Bronx Buccholz fans the side to leave a runner at second. Heading to the bottom of 3rd: @eridgebasebal 2 @BHSScores 1 pic.twitter.com/IQQ68g8nb9
— Paul Gotham (@PickinSplinters) May 4, 2022
“He gets better as he goes,” Patric commented. “He kept the ball down today. Made a couple of mistakes up, but overall he kept the ball down, and he kept it away.
“A lot of these hitters, we talked about from Monday, they were taking some swings and lifting out just enough that I thought if we could finish on the outside half of the plate, we’d be successful and get some ground balls and some strike outs.”
Cole Grazioplene finished 2-for-4 with an RBI sacrifice fly and two runs scored. Reinhart tripled, walked three times and scored three runs. Vince Grazioplene singled twice, scored twice and drove in three.
Mekhi Fortes singled, walked three times, drove in a pair of runs and scored twice. Kleinbach and Siverling scored a pair of runs apiece. Anderson finished 2-for-4 with two RBI.
Evan Brown doubled, tripled, drove in two runs and scored another to lead Eastridge (5-11). Evan Vinci doubled, scored twice and drove in a run. PJ Cutaia collected a base hit and an RBI. Ryan Greenhagen walked twice and scored a run.
Originally scheduled to be played in Batavia, the game was moved to Eastridge’s artificial turf field due to recent rainy conditions.
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