Cortland Standard .net

SHERRILL — Zephan Kash got his only hit of the day at the most important time Sunday, while Matt Yonta made a sparkling debut in his first New York Collegiate Baseball League game.
The former Homer Central slugger Kash poked a single into left field to score Julian Gallup and give the Cortland Crush a 2-1 road victory over the Sherrill Silversmiths at Noyes Park in 10 innings.
Yonta came in to pitch with one out in the bottom of the eighth inning and tossed two shutout innings to earn this first win of the season as the Crush improve to 4-6 thanks to the current three-game winning streak. The Silversmiths fall to 1-8 overall.
On Saturday, Cortland won the first of a four-game set with Sherrill 8-2 at Greg’s Field at Beaudry Park.
Game three is set for 5 p.m. today at Sherrill and the finale of the series is Wednesday at at 5 p.m. again in Sherrill at Noyes Park.
Cortland 2, Sherrill 1: “It was really exciting stuff,” Kash said with a smile. “I’m glad I could come up big for the team. I think the hits will start falling for me. I’ll just keep hitting the ball hard and the hits will come.
“We have been tightening up on defense,” the current Mansfield University senior added. “That’s why we are winning ball games. The pitching is there, the hitting is coming around, I think everything is coming together.”
Shae Edmonds started the game for Cortland and pitched four good innings. The Howard Payne University sophomore allowed three hits, walked two and struck out two as he surrendered an unearned run in the bottom of the third inning.
Sean Mullins led off the third with a double and moved to third base on a wild pitch. Jake Dyer hit a ground ball to second base and the ball was bobbled which allowed Mullins to score.
Cortland evened the score in the top of the sixth inning. Julian Gallup led off with a single. The Niagara University sophomore stole second base, moved to third on a fly out by Kash and scored on Luke Gilbert’s single.
The Silversmiths threatened in the seventh when the first two runners reached base on singles off Crush reliever Chris Rupprecht. Crae Watkins came to the mound and, after a throwing error by the pitcher allowed the lead runner to reach third base, the Crush caught Anthony Fanelli trying to score on a double steal for the first out of the inning. Watkins struck out the next batter and exited as Adam Holowienka came on in a lefty-lefty match-up and struck out Lenny Ortiz to end the threat.
Holowienka got the first out of the eighth inning before Yonta came to the mound. Yonta got his first strike out to end the eighth inning and picked up a strikeout to start the ninth inning. The Jamesville-DeWitt alum and Union College senior allowed one walk in the ninth and a single to start the bottom of the 10th inning before Tyler Saundry came in to pick up the save.
“It is unreal,” Yonta said. “It was my first substantial outing coming off Tommy John surgery. It seems like such a long time. I was brought in in a big spot for the team and I got the result I was hoping for.
“It’s a big hurdle coming back after the surgery,” he continued. “It was 10 months of rehab to start with and that was the toughest. You just sit there and can’t do much else. Once you get past that, I broke the rehab into time periods until I got here. Everything came back quickly today. I will look to get some more outings and go from there.”
Yonta got the win and Saundry the save thanks to the Crush scoring in the top of the 10th inning.
Alex Loberger led off the inning with a single. After a strikeout, Gallup hit into a fielder’s choice that forced Loberger out at second. Jose Arebalo (2-for-3) was hit by a pitch to put runners at first and second. Kash smacked a 2-1 pitch to the left of a diving Ryan Skalnik and Gallup raced home for the winning run.
Nick Banman pitched nine strong innings for Sherrill giving up the one run on seven hits and he struck out four batters. Oneida graduate and St. John’s University senior Mitch Cavanagh came on in the 10th inning and took the loss–his third of the season.
Kevin Jordan went 2-for-4 for the Silversmiths.
With three game winning streak, the Crush are inching closer to that .500 mark.
“That’s where we want to be, well, actually we want to be in first place,” Kash said. “This is the first step after a rough start. That’s where we need to be.”
Cortland 8, Sherrill 2: Cortland was in control from the start in Saturday’s Veterans Recognition Day victory at Greg’s Field at Beaudry Park.
Matt Alberino (2-for-4) stroked a two-run single in the bottom of the second inning and the Crush never looked back in building a 5-0 lead.
Grant Hoover and Jose Arebalo added 2-for-4 bats to the winning attack. Hoover scored two runs and drove in two runs while Arebalo scored once and drove in two runs.
George Haaland was hit by pitches twice, the second time in the helmet and left the game. In the fifth inning, he delivered a solo home run over the left-centerfield fence before getting hit the second time. Haaland was seeing a doctor Monday and hoped to be cleared to play. At Sunday’s game, he said he felt fine and didn’t have any headaches. The checkup was a precautionary step.
Crush starting pitcher Nate Verst did not go the required distance to earn the win as he came out after three innings. The most effective reliever was Joe Jones. The Maryville College junior struggled in his first two appearances this season, but tossed three and one-third innings of shutout ball Saturday. Jones allowed three hits and struck out two batters to even his record at 1-1.
Sean Mullins was 2-for-4 for Sherrill.
TOP CRUSHER: With his 4-for-7 weekend, Jose Arebalo becomes the top hitter in the NYCBL. The junior at Eastern Nazarene College is hitting . 467 (14-for-30) with two doubles, one triple three runs scored and five RBIs in nine games.