Cortland Standard .net

There are many ways to look at Tuesday’s 7-5 loss by the Cortland Crush to Oneonta at Greg’s Field in Beaudry Park.
The Crush were 2-6 on the season and in fifth place when the game began back on June 12, while Oneonta was in first place in the New York Collegiate Baseball League standings with a 4-3 record. The Outlaws scored six unearned runs to build the big lead in the top of the first inning before heavy rains washed out the remainder of the night’s activities.
Heading into Tuesday night, the Crush stood at 9-8 and in third place while Oneonta was 7-7 to reside in fourth place when play resumed. Cortland was the better team in the restart, but never overcame the six-run deficit despite out-scoring Oneonta 5-1.
The two-run setback drops the Crush to 9-9 and back into fifth place, one-half game behind the Syracuse Junior Chiefs. Oneonta improves to 8-7 and moved back into third place in the tightly-packed Eastern Division.
Ironically, all 12 runs scored over the two days were unearned. Cortland made four errors (two on Tuesday) while the Outlaws committed six errors Tuesday night.
Oneonta built its 6-0 lead off Ryan Smith as both Griffin Barnes and Taylor Maxey reached base on one-out errors June 12. Barnes scored on Maxey’s misplayed ball. A walk to Greg Seanz came between between those errors and he scored on a wild pitch for a 2-0 Oneonta advantage. McClain Bradley grounded out for second out of the inning to score Maxey, but the endless inning continued on what some called the fourth out of the inning.
After another walk, C.J. Krowiak doubled home the fourth Outlaw run and Cody Miller belted a two-run homer over the left-centerfield fence the 6-0 cushion. Smith struck out the ninth batter of the inning and the skies opened up.
Fast forward to Tuesday night where morning rains threatened the scheduled doubleheader and the decision was made to just resume the June 12 game at 6 p.m. The other game is now part of a July 2 doubleheader at Greg’s Field.
Starting Oneonta pitcher Michael Adams never threw a pitch so he did not figure in the outcome. Smith did take the loss, but was replaced in the second inning by Cody Barnes. The Le Moyne College sophomore threw five and two-thirds solid innings to give the Crush a chance. Barnes did allow an unearned seventh inning run, but surrendered just two hits and two walks with three strikeouts.
Crae Watkins tossed the final two and one-third innings for Cortland, allowing one hit and striking out two.
“It felt good,” Barnes said. “I don’t think my fastball was really there, but my off-speed pitches were. I hit my spots and let the defense do their work.
“We just fought all night long,” he continued. “We didn’t get down on ourselves being down 6-0. We battled back and it was one heck of a game.”
DAVE EHMAN TOOK to the mound for the Outlaws and went the first three innings. The Crush scored two runs off Ehman in the third inning. With two outs, Terrell Barringer reached on a third strike passed ball. Julian Gallup who replaced Jose Arebalo in the the line-up in right field singled Barringer home after the Lincoln University junior had stolen second base.
Gallup tried to steal second base and was safe on an error by catcher Jessey Valdez who replaced Miller behind the plate. Miller is back home in California nursing an injury. Crush catcher Chris Mattison singled to centerfield to score Gallup to pull Cortland to within 6-2. As the throw went to the plate, Mattison tried to reach second base and was thrown out to end the inning.
Cortland added another run in the bottom of the fifth inning. Hank Pellicciotti drew a lead off walk from reliever Luke Samson who came on to pitch in the bottom of the fourth inning. Grant Hoover (2-for-5) singled to right field and the ball was fumbled on the grass. sending Pellicciotti to third and Hoover reached second base. Barringer grounded out, but Pellicciotti crossed the plate as the Outlaw advantage shrunk to 6-3.
The next two batters grounded out to end that Crush threat.
Barnes was rolling along on the mound, but Oneonta picked up an insurance run in the top of the seventh inning.
With one out, Tyler Bruno drew a walk and advanced to second when Barnes’ pick-off throw was wide of first baseman Zephan Kash. Barnes grounded out to move Bruno to third base and he scored on a single by Zack Blonder. Barnes walked Maxey and that was the end of his solid relief effort.
Watkins came on and struck out Bradley to end the Outlaw threat.
SAMSON MATCHED Barnes in innings pitched as he got in trouble in the bottom of the ninth inning with two outs. Wes Burghardt pinch hit in the seventh inning for Alex Loberger in his first action since June 15 due to injury. Burghardt stayed in the game and played left field and the move paid off as the SUNY Brockport senior got an infield single. Samson balked the runner to second and Burghardt scored on a throwing error that allowed Pellicciotti to each first base.
Hoover hit a double down the right field line to score Pellicciotti as Cortland closed to within 7-5. That was the end of the day for Samson.
“The past two weeks have been great as the team as been winning a lot of games, but, at the same time, you want to be out there and helping the team,” Burghardt said. “It felt nice to be back out there and trying to help the team got back into this game. We almost did it.
“We dug ourselves a big hole, but that’s baseball,” he added. “You’re going to make errors. They made errors. We didn’t come out like we were down 6-0. We looked at it as a fresh game. It showed as we did score five runs. We played hard and didn’t roll over.”
Matthew Grier came in to pitch for Oneonta and promptly grazed Crush pinch-hitter Y.B. Hughes. With the winning run at the plate, Grier got a ground out to end the game and picked his his first save. Samson got his first win after scattering five hits, allowing three unearned runs, walking one batter and striking out four Crush batters.
Cortland travels to Oneonta for a 7 p.m. game tonight before heading to Geneva Thursday for a 6 p.m. game against the Red Wings.