By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA
GRAND ISLAND – This was supposed to be the slightly down year for the Victor Blue Devils, a year when getting back to the sectional semifinals or finals could be a monumental accomplishment.
A good deal of talent graduated in 2023, when the Blue Devils lost in the Section V championship game. Thus, aspirations in April were grounded.
“I didn’t think we’d be the best team, especially after last year when we had a really good team,” senior pitcher and infielder Weston Elkovitch said.
This, however, is Victor baseball, a program that has been synonymous with winning for the past 20 years. Since 2004, the Blue Devils have won three state championships and reached the title game one other time. Trips to Binghamton, the site of the state tournament, are seemingly part of the Blue Devils annual baseball calendar.
So while expectations were tempered to start the season, it’s hardly a surprise that Victor has earned another berth in the Final Four.
Behind the strike-throwing left arm of Elkovitch and a patient hitting attack, the Blue Devils won the Class AA Far West Regional on Saturday evening with a 4-1 victory over Section VI champion Clarence at Grand Island High School.
“This means a lot for the program, it means a lot to this team, especially the seniors,” Elkovitch said after his complete-game six-hitter.
Six days earlier, the senior left-hander pitched a complete-game four-hitter against Greece Athena as the Blue Devils won the Section V championship. On Saturday against Clarence, he scattered six hits, struck out four and didn’t allow a run until the sixth inning.
“I had all my pitches working, I was locating my fastball and the defense made the plays,” Elkovitch said.
Meanwhile, the Blue Devils offense produced all the runs they needed in the second and third innings. Victor scored three times in the second without a hit, then used three singles in the third to take a 4-0 lead.
That after an ultra-impressive first inning by Clarence (15-9) starter Jakob Denall. He needed just 12 pitches to set the Blue Devils down 1-2-3.
But then came the second inning and throwing strikes became problematic. He walked two, hit a batter and threw two run-scoring wild pitches.
“Our coaches said, ‘Don’t expand up and down; you can expand in and out but don’t expand up and down,’ ” third baseman Grady Kessler said. “Our coaches definitely picked up that he was missing high and low.
“If he’s going to give us balls, obviously we’re going to take them.”
That’s why John Swartz was able to draw a lead-off walk, with an errant pickoff throw allowing him to scoot to second. Kessler then walked, and two wild pitches allowed Swartz to score and Kessler to advance to third. Kessler then scored on an error and another wild pitch brought home Jameson Ricigliano, who had been hit by a pitch.
“That was kind of the M.O. (on Denall) so we wanted to wait him out,” Victor coach Sean Rucker said.
Victor (20-5) did damage with the bats in the third, using singles by Elkovitch, Swartz and Kessler to produce a fourth run, which was more than enough.
“We definitely play way better with a lead, but I think that could go for every single team,” Kessler said.
Elkovitch pitched very effectively with the lead. From the second inning to seventh, Clarence had more than one baserunner just once. That was in the sixth, when Matthew Ganschow led off with a double and scored two outs later on Jake Mattoon’s ground ball single to center.
He made sure there would be no Clarence rally in the seventh, working a seven-pitch 1-2-3 inning, which was followed by the regional championship celebration.
“I’m proud of this group, how we’re really built ourselves up,” Rucker said. “We’re playing our best baseball now.”
Of course, that’s often the case with the Blue Devils. That’s how they won state championships in 2004, 2011 and 2014. It’s why they’re headed to the Final Four for a sixth time in two decades and will play at 7 p.m. Friday at Binghamton University.
“We’re pretty deep and we’ve improved,” Rucker said. “I didn’t know if we would have the pitching, but we do now.”
Which, of course, means one thing: The Blue Devils again need hotel reservations in Binghamton.
Leave a Reply