Cortland Standard .net

SYRACUSE — The offensive struggles continued for the Cortland Crush in a rare weekday afternoon contest Thursday at Onondaga Community College.
Opposing starting pitcher Nathan Doiran limited the Crush to four hits through eight-plus innings of work as the Syracuse Junior Chiefs eeked out a 2-1 New York Collegiate Baseball League victory.
The Junior Chiefs improve to 8-6, snapping a five-game winning streak by the Crush who fall to 6-7.
An infield single to Nick Panissidi in the top of the second inning, a double by Jose Arebalo in the third and a single by Luke Gilbert in the fifth inning were the only hits through eight innings, though Syracuse’s Doiran — a senior at Dean College — did walk four batters in that same span. The Crush left two men on base in the second and third innings along with others left stranded in the fourth, sixth and seventh as the timely hit never came.
Cortland High grad and West Liberty University junior Yale Brian Hughes kept his team in the game after a rough 25-pitch first inning that gave the Junior Chiefs an early 1-0 lead.
After retiring the first two batters, Alex Perry lined a 3-2 pitch off the outside of Hughes’ right foot for an infield single and sparked three consecutive hits for that run. Shane Trevino singled to put runners at the corners. Dryden High alum and Kueka College junior Brian Colbert drove Perry in with a single to right field behind Hank Pellicciotti who was moving towards second base as Trevino was on the move.
After that hit by Colbert, Hughes retired 10 straight batters before a lead-off single by Samuel Ellinwood in the bottom of the fifth inning led to the second Syracuse run. Michael Elfreth laid down a sacrifice bunt to move Ellinwood to second base. Hughes struck out Alex Schutz and he should have been out of the inning when Phillip Madonna hit a ground ball to shortstop. The ball was booted as Ellinwood advance to third base. Justin Healey hit a single to left field that allowed Ellinwood to score for a 2-0 Junior Chiefs advantage.
Hughes had a 1-2-3 seventh inning that included a picked-off of Ellinwood at first base and he retired the Junior Chiefs in order in the eighth inning. His final line read: eight innings pitched, two runs allowed — one earned run — on six hits with five strikeouts and one batter hit by pitch. Those numbers could have produced win No. 2 on the season for the right-hander, but it was not to be.
“THEY REALLY GOT one good hit off me in that first inning,” Hughes said. “The one hit (by Colbert) was really a hit and run and squibbed through the infield to score the run. I thought I pitched well. They scored runs
“We have got to get the bats going,” he continued. “We been winning some close games with not a lot of hits. Today we lost a close one. I am sure we get back to wining games as soon as we get the bats going.”
Hughes said his foot was starting to hurt a bit after the game and expects its to be nothing more than sore in the morning.
Nate Verst tossed a 1-2-3 bottom of the eighth inning for the Crush.
“The pitching staff is working hard,” Crush pitching coach Daniel Payne said. “The guys have a daily pitching plan and they are sticking to it. The guys believe in each other. They all have roles and accept those roles.
“Y.B. located his pitches well today,” he added of hurler Hughes. “He was keeping his fastball low in the zone. He got some help from his defense and got out of a couple of jams. Nate faced their two, three and four hitters in the eighth inning and did very well.”
Cortland made things interesting in the top of the ninth as a lead-off walk to Pinch hitter Neil McCormack and a single by Grant Hoover had runners at first and second with no outs. Syracuse coach Matt Colbert, another Dryden High grad like his younger brother Brian, went to his bullpen and brought in closer Christopher Pennell from St. Thomas Aquinas College. With Terrell Barringer pinch running for McCormack, Nick Panissidi dropped down a perfect sacrifice bunt to move Barringer to third and Hoover to second. Pennell got the next batter to ground out for the second out of the inning. With Alex Loberger at the plate, a passed ball off the glove of catcher Phillip Madonna’s glove allowed Barringer to score to pull the Crush to within 2-1 and Hoover raced to third base. Loberger walked and again put runners at the corners.
WITH LUKE GILBERT behind 0-2 in the count, the Crush tried a double steal as Loberger broke for second base. From here on debate will continue as the Crush players and fans though Pennell balked as he wheeled towards Loberger heading towards second. When the pitcher continue to move towards second, Hoover broke for home plate. Pennell wheeled again and threw a strike to Madonna.
The catcher took the throw and was knocked down by Hoover with a shoulder block as the runner tried to score the tying run. The game was over, Madonna angrily shoved Hoover and last year’s bitter rivalry between the two teams heated up again.
Hoover was ejected by the umpires and will face disciplinary action from the league for not sliding, but the other debate was whether Madonna was blocking the plate before he got the throw. The umpires stayed between both teams to prevent any other confrontations.
Doiran notched his first win of the season and Pennell recorded his sixth save for the Junior Chiefs.
“We started hitting the ball well when we began the win streak,” Crush hitting coach Matt Frey said. “Right no, the offense is relying on four or five guys. When they are not hitting it does look ugly. Everyone hitting at the bottom of the line-up has talent. They all have the ability. Some of the guys are just afraid of failure right now. The guys need to play to win, not to play to not lose.
“We got away with some wins at Sherrill by just showing up,” he continued. “A couple of key hits just us wins. We just need to start hitting one through nine in the order.”
Cortland will travel back to OCC tonight for a seven o’clock game and the second of five straight meetings with the Junior Chiefs.