By PAUL GOTHAM
HOUGHTON, N.Y. — Kaiden Bowers pointed toward the fence along the right-field line of Houghton University’s baseball field.
There, clad in shirts of green, grey and white stood the fans of the Fillmore Eagles, still smiling, still cheering.
“This is unbelievable,” the third-year coach said of the number of fans in attendance. “You don’t see this at many (Class) A games, just so much support. Honestly, it feels good just to be around this community, this family. It’s awesome. I can’t say enough about Fillmore.”
And the Eagles gave their fans plenty of reason to cheer on this warm June night.
Isaac Wilcox and Jared Boon combined to throw four shutout innings to close the game. James Hillman and Avery Potter drove in two runs apiece. Fillmore clinched a spot in the NYSPHSAA Class D semifinals with an 8-3 win over Schenevus/Charlotte Valley (IV).
“It feels great,” said Wilcox.
Fillmore scored three times in the third to take a 4-3 lead and all but put the game away with four more runs in the fourth.
“We’ve been a team of momentum all year,” Bowers said. “Once we get going, we roll for multiple runs in an inning.”
Trailing 3-1, Potter led the third with a base hit. Mack Nusbickel drew a walk, and Boon tied the game with a triple in the left-center gap. Connor McCumiskey brought home the go-ahead run with an RBI groundout.
Braylon Hatch reached on a hit by pitch to start the fourth and then stole second. Wade DeRock squared for what appeared to be a sacrifice bunt, but the Fillmore second baseman beat the throw to put runners on the corners. Potter followed with a two-out double. Hillman capped the inning and provided the eventual final margin of victory with a two run-double of his own.
“That’s the first time we’ve had to come from behind, even though, you know, it was only one or two runs, but twice in the same game. I don’t know if we’ve had to do that yet this year, so it shows character and grit for us to know that we can play in those games and battle and not stray from what we do well.”
With lead in hand, Wilcox was at his best in the fifth with the heart of the Schenevus/Charlotte Valley (S/CV) order coming to the plate.
“Isaac has been a pitcher all year that’s gotten better as games have gone on,” Bowers said. “And truthfully, like the first three innings for him wasn’t his best baseball. He was falling behind in counts and against good teams when you’re falling behind, they’re gonna get runners.”
S/CV’s Tim Green and Sawyer Bridger had both reached base in their previous two plate appearances and combined for three runs. Owen Green had two RBI.
In the fifth, Wilcox set down the three in order.
“He started to finally find his curveball and pound the zone a little bit earlier and get ahead,” Bowers said. “When he’s ahead and stays ahead, he’s tough to hit. That was the difference for him.”
The junior right-hander struck out Tim Green. Bridger rolled over on a breaking for a ground out, and Owen Green was retired on a routine fly ball.
“I was trying to find an arm angle, so I had to adjust pretty well,” Wilcox said. “I had to follow through a little more, make it more of a slurvy instead of a curveball. It definitely helped a lot.
“I got in the right headspace, found my velocity and my off speed. Then I pretty much knew I was guaranteed from there.”
Jared Boon retired all six batters he faced to close out the game.
Fillmore baseball is a program with six sectional titles. Three of those championships have come in the past five years. A season ago, the Eagles reached the state semifinals for the first time. Friday night’s win clinched back-to-back trips to Binghamton.
“The buy in from these 15 (players) is the reason, and my coaching staff’s incredible,” Bowers said.
Nusbickel scored twice in the win. Hillman was 2-for-2 with two doubles. Potter went 2-3 with two runs scored.
The Eagles will face either Oriskany (III) or Heuvelton (X) next Friday at Union-Endicott High School. A 10 AM first pitch is scheduled.
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