Cortland Standard .net

SHERRILL — Nick Panissidi bounced back nicely.
After going 0-for-4 since coming off concussion protocol on Sunday, Panissidi — playing shortstop after being used mostly at third this season — went 4-for-5 with a home run, four RBIs and a run scored to lead the Cortland Crush to an 8-6 New York Collegiate Baseball League win over the host Sherrill Silversmiths.
His bat and the Silversmiths’ glove problems — to the tune of six errors in the contest as the visitors totaled eight hits — enabled the Crush to improve to 18-14 on the season and take over sole possession of second place in the league’s Eastern Division. Cortland sits a half-game ahead of the Geneva Red Wings (16-13) and Syracuse Junior Chiefs (18-15), both of those teams idle Wednesday.
Cortland is now just a game and a half behind the first-place Syracuse Salt Cats, who were beaten 11-4 by the visiting Oneonta Outlaws. Sherrill is last in the six-team Eastern Division at 7-23.
Panissidi’s first home run of the season, over the short (246 feet) rightfield fence at Noyes Park in the seventh inning, gave the Crush an 8-3 lead and proved to be important after the Silversmiths came back with three runs in the bottom of the same innings. The final two innings of the game were scoreless, Tyler Saundry picking up his seventh save of the season by giving up just one hit in that span and fanning two batters.
Saundry was the fifth pitcher Cortland used in the game, the win going to starter Yale Brian Hughes, who allowed three hits and an earned run with four strikeouts in 5 1/3 innings.
“I felt comfortable at the plate,” Panissidi said. “I was just feeding off other guys’ at-bats. They were getting some good looks and hits. I’m just really following (Zephan) Kash, he’s been smoking the ball. He is hitting the ball well, even when he gets out, so I feed off what he does. I want to pump up the team like he does.”
“The pitchers have been riding me ever since I hit it,” he said with a laugh in reference to his first homer of the season. “It’s good we were able to get on top like that. We did put some runs on the board. Good bounce back after last night (a 12-1 loss to the Junior Chiefs on Wednesday). We’ll take every win. We want to make playoffs. That’s our number one thought.”
While Panissidi was the story offensively, the Crush defense also made the highlight reel by turning a triple play in the fifth inning. With runners on first and second after being walked by Hughes, Sherrill first baseman Jake Pendred hit a sinking line drive that centerfielder Grant Hoover made a diving grab on. With both runners on the move, Hoover threw the ball to second baseman Terrell Barringer for the second out, and Barringer relayed it to first baseman George Haaland to complete the triple play.
Cortland scored in five consecutive innings and never trailed in the contest. Barringer walked with one out in the third, stole second and scored on an outfield error that allowed catcher Alex Loberger to get to second. He later scored on a single to left by Haaland.
Third baseman Wes Burghardt beat out an infield single with one out in the fourth and made it 3-0 on a two-out fielder’s choice, as Hoover beat a throw into second. Sherrill got on the board in the bottom of the fourth as rightfielder Mitch Sloan led off with a single and later scored as the Crush pulled off a double play.
Panissidi’s two-run single to left-center made it 5-1 in the fifth, and Loberger reached on an error and later scored on a sacrifice fly to left by Haaland in the sixth, The hosts pulled to within 6-3 in the bottom of that frame, both runs scoring on a double to left by catcher Kevin Jordan.
Crush leftfielder Jose Arebalo walked to lead off the seventh and came home on Panissidi’s homer in the seventh before the Silversmiths plated three runs in the bottom of the inning. First baseman Lenny Ortiz walked and later came home on a sacrifice fly to right by Sloan before centerfielder Jake Dyer’s two-run homer to right closed out the scoring.
Cortland left a runner on in each of the last two innings while Saundry put Sherrill down in order in the eight and stranded one runner in the ninth, chalking up his second strikeout of the inning to end the game.
Dyer went 3-for-5 for Sherrill with the homer, two RBIs and two runs while Sloan went 2-for-3 with an RBI and a run and Jordan was 2-for-4 with three RBIs.
The Crush was scheduled to visit the Junior Chiefs today at Onondaga Community College in Syracuse with a 7 p.m. first pitch before hosting the Silversmiths on Friday at 6 p.m. and Saturday at 3 p.m. on Greg’s Field. The same two teams then meet in Sherrill on Sunday starting at 5 p.m.