Cortland Standard .net

By TANEY BEAUMONT
Staff Writer
There was a nice symmetry to the Cortland Crush’s first win of the still-young New York Collegiate Baseball League season Friday night on Greg’s Field.
After opening the season with a pair of road losses, the Crush finally enjoyed the kind of big inning that had gone to its opposition to that point, scoring three runs in the bottom of the eighth en route to a 5-2 win over the visiting Syracuse Junior Chiefs.
Not only did manager Bill McConnell’s team break into the win column in its first home game of the season, it did it on Greg’s Night, which honored the team’s namesake, Cortland baseball legend Greg Partigianoni.
“Three games into the season we’re starting to gel,” an obviously pleased McConnell said. “We’re still making little mistakes, like getting picked off on a base hit (in the sixth inning), but the players have bought in and are coming together well. What better way to win than to come from behind? Yale (starting pitcher Yale Brian Hughes) did a great job and Ryan Smith (who got the win in relief) closed them down and got some innings. He’s going to start for us on Tuesday.
“We had some opportunities we threw away, but two tremendous, long home runs, and that was the key, along with the pitchers.”
The first of those home runs, a blast into the trees in left-center by catcher Chris Mattison in the fourth inning, was the Crush’s first round-tripper of the season and gave the hosts a 1-0 lead.
“It was a fastball, and I knew it was gone when I hit it,” Frederick Community College (Md.) performer Mattison said with a grin. “It feels good to get our first win, especially in our first home game. It was a team effort; everyone did well.”
The Junior Chiefs (2-2) equalized in the fifth, as centerfielder James Wynne led off with a shot to right off Cortland High alum and West Liberty hurler Hughes that he hustled into a double, was sacrificed to third by catcher Philip Madonna and scored on a groundout by shortstop Samuel Ellinwood.
THE VISITORS TOOK the lead in the sixth. Rightfielder Michael Blatchford led off with a single to left and went to second when Hughes hit designated hitter Alex Perry with a pitch for the second time in the game. The runners moved to second and third on a wild pitch before a sacrifice fly to right by leftfielder Shane Trevino brought Blatchford home and sent Perry to third. Hughes then avoided further damage by getting a strikeout and flyout to end the inning.
The sixth-inning mistake that McConnell mentioned cost his team a chance to tie the game.
Leftfielder Alex Loberger led off with a single to left center before centerfielder Grant Hoover laid down a bunt that went for a single. Loberger, though, was caught going too far around second and thrown out by Syracuse second baseman Ryan Pingitore, who had fielded the bunt. Shortstop Henry Pellicciotti then reached on an infield error before Junior Chiefs reliever Grant Weinmann, who had come in to start the inning in relief of starter Jean-Carlos Berasgoico, got third baseman Wes Burghardt to ground into an inning-ending double play.
The hosts were also caught stealing twice by the strong-armed Madonna and had a runner doubled off after a good catch in right field by Blatchford.
The Crush tied the game back up in the seventh on its second long ball, first baseman Zephan Kash unloading a blast far over the right field fence.
“I was trying to get my first good at-bat and got a good fastball,” said Kash, the former Homer Central slugger now playing at Mansfield University. “I’ve learned that you can’t let your first couple at-bats dictate your game, that you have to hang in there. I knew when I hit it that it was gone. This was a great team win. We stuck with it the whole time.”
SMITH, WHO WILL join the recently crowned Division III national champion SUNY Cortland team this fall after transferring from Hudson Valley CC, came on for Hughes to start the seventh and kept the Junior Chiefs off the board, leaving runners on third in each inning, to set the stage for the fateful frame.
Julian Gallup, who had taken over in left for Loberger in the top of the inning, was hit by a pitch to lead off the bottom of the eighth. Hoover then singled to right to put men on first and second, and Gallup scored on a throwing error by reliever Liam Rogers (Cazenovia High/St. Lawrence) on a sacrifice bunt by Pellicciotti.
With George Max Navadel on as the visitors’ fourth pitcher of the game, Hoover was then extinguished in a rundown after Burghardt’s grounder to third, which the runners moving to second and third. One out later Kash was intentionally walked, loading the bases, before designated hitter Jose Arebalo (Eastern Nazarene College) laced a two-run single to right. Navadel then fanned rightfielder Luke Gilbert to end the inning.
“There was less pressure because we had the lead, and I hit a fastball away,” Arebalo said. “I hope we can keep this momentum going;’ it was good to get the first win at home. We made a couple of mistakes, but got the ‘W’”.
After Smith fanned the first two Junior Chiefs he faced in the ninth he gave up three singles to load the bases before getting Perry to fly out to end the game.
“My goal was to go and pound the strike zone,” Arebalo said. “The team made the plays for me. It took a lot of stress off to have the 5-2 lead going into the ninth.”
Smith ended up pitching three scoreless innings, giving up five hits with the two strikeouts ands no walks. Hughes surrendered four hits and two earned runs over the first six innings, with a walk and four strikeouts.
“They started to see me a little better,” Hughes said. “It was time for Ryan to come in and shut them down.”
“THEY DID A GOOD job and got some good swings on some not-so-good pitches,” said Syracuse manager and Dryden High product Matt Colbert. “They got the big hit to stretch the lead to 5-2 and we didn’t do the job the way we had to offensively. You have to tip your cap to them.
“Fortunately, this is a three-game series,” he added, with 3 p,m. contests today and Sunday, which is Crown City Little League Day. “Hopefully we can bounce back tomorrow and have the rubber match on Sunday. You don’t have time to breathe in this league before you’re back at it.”
Mattison went 2-for-4 with a double, homer, RBI and run for the Crush while Arebalo (two RBIs) and Hoover both went 2-for-4. Blatchford went 3-for-4 with a run for the visitors while third baseman Michael Elfreth went 2-for-4.
———
EXTRA INNINGS: Greg Partigianoni was honored in pre-game ceremonies that included his mother Angie and brother Rick, and with facts about his career that were announced over the PA system throughout the night.... Local contractors Joe Kash and Randy Congdon shared first-pitch duties, honored for their work on the new, larger dugouts and the media area behind home plate at Greg’s Field. Kash’s catcher was his son Zephan... Drew Rozewski, a fourth-grader at Randall Elementary, was the Crush’s honorary batboy for the night.