Cortland Standard .net

The term “never say die” was defined Friday night on Greg’s Field.
The Cortland Crush trailed 7-0 against the visiting Sherrill Silversmiths after the top of the fifth inning of their New York Collegiate Baseball League game before a rally that was capped by three-run ninth inning and ended up as an 8-7 walkoff victory.
Grant Hoover, who came in from left field to pitch the final three innings, capped the winning rally — and gave himself the mound win, his first in four appearances this season — with a single off the arm of Silvermiths reliever Nicholas Radich that brought centerfielder Julian Gallup home with the winning run.
“There was a lot going through my mind in that last at-bat,” Hoover said. “I was just wanting to hit the ball hard and force them to make a nice play. Julian is the fastest kid in the league and he was able to score on that hit. Props to him for doing that. I just squared a pitch up and got the barrel on the ball to walk away with the win.
“I told the guys we just needed to peck away. Let’s just get one or two runs an inning to work our way back into the game. Once we got their starter (Alex Bellardini) out of there we began getting quality at-bats against the relievers. We worked walks, just some timely hits, and the next thing we knew was we were going into the ninth inning down just two runs. That made it a winnable ballgame,” he added.
The Silversmiths, who have won just seven times in 32 games so far this season, looked strong early on in building their 7-0 lead. They opened the scoring in the second inning as leftfielder Connor Bowie singled to left and eventually scored on an error as he stole third. Sherrill added three runs in the third on another throwing error, a sacrifice fly and a wild pitch, and added three more in the fifth on a three-run home run to left by designated hitter Michael-Patrick Buckley.
Gallup singled to right and later scored on a wild pitch in the fifth inning to start the Crush’s journey to its sixth win against Sherrill in as many games this season. Rightfielder Luke Gilbert doubled to left and came around on a single by second baseman Wes Burghardt to make it 7-2 after six innings, and Hoover scored to make it a four-run game on a groundout by catcher George Haaland after leading off the seventh with a walk.
Burghardt led off the eighth by getting hit by a pitch and went to second one out later on a single by right by Gallup before Hoover also singled to right to load the bases. An outfield error on a fly ball by by Homer Central product Zephan Kash, the first baseman, scored Burghardt and Gallup. Haaland then walked to reload the bases before Sherrill reliever Dan Shelton got an infield fly and a fielder’s choice to end the threat.
Shortstop Matt Alberino led off the ninth with a single up the middle, Hank Pellicciotti then coming in as a pinch-runner as Radich replaced Shelton on the mound for the Silversmiths. After Burghardt walked, Radich picked off Pellicciotti for the first out of the inning. Nick Panissidi, who played both third and first base in the game, then tripled to right-center to plate Burghardt and scored on the same play to tie the contest at 7-7 as the ball was misplayed in the infield on the throw-in.
Gallup then reached base on Sherrill’s fourth error of the game and went to second on wild pitch before scoring on Hoover’s walkoff single.
“It was awesome,” Gallup said in summing up the game. “When you put the ball in play, good things happen. Their centerfielder lost a couple of balls in the lights and a couple of other plays went our way. We hit the ball hard early and we were down 7-0; you would have thought it should be a tie ballgame. We did make some little mistakes, but we patched those up and we found some holes. That’s baseball.”
Gallup went 3-for-6 on the night with three runs scored and two stolen bases. Panissidi went 2-for-4 with the triple, an RBI and a run while Hoover (RBI, run) and Gilbert (double, run) both went 2-for-5.
Bowie went 2-for-3 with a run for the Silversmiths, while Buckley (homer, four RBIs, run), shortstop Zach Taylor (two runs) and second baseman Luke Johnson (run) all went 2-for-4.
Hoover threw three scoreless innings, allowing two hits and fanning two batters. Adam Holowienka blanked the visitors over two innings, with two strikeouts, after starter Ben Barnes was roughed up for seven runs, five earned, on seven hits with one strikeout over the first four innings. Radich fell to 0-4, giving up the three runs (two earned) and two hits in a third of an inning.
In Friday’s other Eastern Division games, the Geneva Red Wings and Syracuse Salt Cats split a doubleheader, Geneva winning the opener 1-0 and Syracuse taking the second game 5-2. The Oneonta Outlaws swept adoubleheader against the Syracuse Junior Chiefs, winning 6-4 and 3-1.
The Crush improved to 19-15 with its win and is now alone in second place in the NYCBL’s Eastern Division, two games behind the Salt Cats (21-13). The Red Wings (17-14) and Junior Chiefs (19-16) are tied for third a half-game behind the Crush, with the Outlaws fifth at 14-14, four games out of the top spot, and Sherrill sixth.
In Friday’s other Eastern Division games, the Geneva Red Wings and Syracuse Salt Cats split a doubleheader, Geneva winning the opener 1-0 and Syracuse taking the second game 5-2. The Oneonta Outlaws swept a doubleheader against the Syracuse Junior Chiefs, winning 6-4 and 3-1.
Cortland was to host the Silversmiths at 3 p.m. today on Greg’s Field before the two teams meet Sunday in Sherrill in a 5 p.m. start. The Crush then visit Oneonta Monday for a doubleheader starting at 5 p.m. before getting three days off for the All-Star break.