Cortland Standard .net

By TANEY BEAUMONT
Staff Writer
SYRACUSE — Coach Ben Albright gathered his Cortland High baseball team together Saturday for one last post-game chat this season in front of the first-base dugout on Onondaga Community College’s field.
A long season that included measures of frustration, tragedy, courage and triumph had just seen closure added to the list. The seventh-seeded Purple Tigers had fallen to No. 3 Vernon-Verona-Sherrill 11-3 in the semifinals of the Section 3 Class A tournament as their 2015 campaign ended with a record of 10-8.
“I’d told the guys they didn’t have any reason to hang their heads,” Albright said. “They came back in a season that, after the opener, was delayed two weeks by weather, lost four straight, then somehow won the league (OHSL Freedom National Division). Then they got to the sectional semis despite the tragedies. They didn’t let up and kept going.
“It says a lot about the character of the players. Our senior leaders banded the kids together. They’re all great quality kids.”
After the deaths of Amie Leland on May 8 and both Alexis Porter and Andrea Czimmer on May 22, the CHS players dedicated their season to their lost schoolmates and friends.
“We’ve been riding awhile on what was left in the tank,” Albright said. “There were a lot of motivating factors. With playing, attending services for their friends and going to school, these guys are cooked. It’s tough to get through something like that.”
Cortland was one misdirected pitch away from having the season end Thursday night at No. 2 Watertown, but after Porter’s funeral, a long bus ride and a long game scored four runs in the eighth and prevailed 11-7 in the quarterfinals.
CHS TRAILED 2-0 after three innings Saturday after senior rightfielder Zack Durant and senior centerfielder Christian Tiffin had RBI singles for the Red Devils in the first and second innings, respectively. The Purple Tigers then dug deep and rallied one more time to take their final lead of the season, sending eight men to the plate in the top of the fourth.
Senior third baseman Andrew Babcock led off with a single up the middle off V-V-S junior starter Devin Long. One out later, senior rightfielder Nikolai Tubbs reached base on an infield error before junior second baseman Alex Babcock walked to load the bases.
At that point, sophomore reliever Connor VanDreason came on in relief and was greeted by CHS sophomore starting pitcher-first baseman Duff Steve’s single to left-center that scored Andrew Babcock and left the bases loaded.
Junior first baseman-pitcher Jake Prignon then hit a two-run single to left to make it a 3-2 game, but after a flyout and a wild pitch that moved the runners to second and third, VanDreason closed things down with a strikeout.
The Red Devils promptly sent nine men to the plate against Steve in the bottom of the fourth and scored five runs to take the lead for good. Freshman leftfielder Davey Moffett tripled to the fence in right to get things started and came home to tie the game on a double deep over senior centerfielder Justin Prentice’s head by senior first baseman Jason Webb. After Webb beat the throw to third on a sacrifice bunt by senior catcher Jason Moffett, junior shortstop Ryan Palmer doubled over the head of Tubbs in right to score Webb. A run-scoring single by senior centerfielder Christian Tiffin and a two-run double to right-center by senior third baseman Ryan McNamara gave V-V-S a 7-3 lead.
“V-V-S IS A HIGHLY-SKILLLED team with a lot of fight in them,” Albright said. “They have some big, strong boys, and they stepped it up. We made mistakes, and they made us pay for it. The trouble was that the wind picked up in the bottom of the fourth and line-drive fly balls were carrying. Their guys put the ball in play and did a good job.”
“That’s the way these guys do it,” Red Devils coach Chad Hodkinson said, shaking his head and smiling after his team had improved to 19-2 on the season. “You hope to never give up the lead, but their energy never changes. We’ve had some tight games and are battle-tested. We’ve come from behind five-six-seven times, maybe, and they don’t change their attitude and get better at the plate as the game goes on.”
While VanDreason held the Purple Tigers scoreless on three hits with four strikeouts over the final 3 2-3 innings to earn the win, V-V-S did indeed continue to prosper offensively. After Davey Moffett led off the fifth with a single to center off Cortland junior reliever Curtis Wilk, who got the win over Watertown, Webb slammed his third home run of the season over the fence in left to make it a 9-3 game.
Davey Moffett singled to left to drive in a run in the sixth, a second run coming home when the ball was misplayed to make it 11-3.
Webb led the winners’ 11-hit attack, going 3-for-3 with the double and home run, three RBIs and three runs scored while Davey Moffett was 3-for-4 with the triple, RBI and two runs and Tiffin went 2-for-3 with two RBIs and two runs. Cortland got its six hits, all singles, from six different players as Prignon collected the two RBIs and Steve drove in the other run.
“I’M NOT TRYING to do too much,” Webb said. “I just want to help the team and make solid contact, something I’ve been trying to do all year. We’ve had to come from behind multiple times this season. and when Davey led off (the fourth) with his triple it lifted everybody and got us going.”
V-V-S will meet top-seeded Syracuse CBA for the Section 3 Class A crown on the same OCC field Tuesday in a 7 p.m. start. The Brothers improved to 17-5 with a 5-2 win over No. 5 Camden (16-6) in Saturday’s first game. V-V-S is ranked third and CBA 10th in the latest state Class A rankings.