Wellsville senior Trenton Green gave up two first inning hits and the Lions trailed East Rochester, 2-0 in the Section V Class B2 title game with no outs and a runner on third.
Green retired the next 14 batters and gave one more hit, striking out 12 as Wellsville (14-7) defeated East Rochester, 10-2.
Wellsville will take on B1 champion Haverling at 4 p.m. on Monday at ESL Ball Park.
Last season, Wellsville beat LeRoy, 4-3 when Carson Grover stole home for the deciding run.
With the score 2-2, Wellsville’s first-year coach John Anderson remembered what happened last season, and sent Paul Giovanniello home in the third inning to break the 2-2 tie and the Lions never looked back.
“East Rochester’s pitcher Liam DeHollander was throwing 86 with a nice slider so I felt that might be the only way to get the lead,” said Anderson. “Then Liam took a line drive off the leg and somehow pitched into the fifth before he couldn’t land on the leg and came out. It was a gutsy performance.”
At the plate for Wellsville, freshman Drew Cowburn was 2-for-3 with a triple, RBI and with Green, turned a 1-6-3 double play to end the game.
Giovanielle, a sophomore, had two hits, two RBI, stole two bases, made a sliding diving catch in center and made a throw from center on a line to stop a run from scoring.
Freshman Ben Helveston had a double, RBI and a run, senior catcher Matt Ritter had a double and a run, sophomore Karter Grover drove in two runs and scored, Brennen Geffers had an RBI, Ty Rahr scored and senior second baseman Andrew Ordiway made a diving stab of a groundball heading to right and nabbed the runner.
“From pitching to hitting and defense, this was our most complete game of the season,” Anderson said. “We have such a great Section V committee who put together a great doubleheader at a great venue. ER coach Todd Kirkey joked, ‘Did you bring the entire village of Wellsville?’ It was a great crowd and a lot of baseball alumni and community members. It meant a lot to us.”
For East Rochester, Mason Loria (run), Tyler Leisten (run) and Noah Wollschlager (RBI) had hits.
DeHollander struck out five with four hits and four walks over 4.1 innings. Wollschlager threw the last 1.2 innings with three strikeouts and two hits.
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