ONEONTA – G-MU stuck with the simple plan of just putting the ball in play with the idea that good things will eventually happen.
Running out of time and in dire need of runs, the Raiders conceived a dramatic rally in their final at-bat. Benefiting from Cherry Valley-Springfield’s ill-timed error, the Raiders prevailed in the Tri-Valley League championship baseball game, 7-6, at SUNY Oneonta Tuesday.
“Since we lost the Hancock game, we’ve talked about putting the ball in play and making the other team field the ball,” said G-MU coach Jim Johnson, whose club won its first league championship since the 1999 season.
The Patriots led 5-0 in the fifth inning and took a three-run lead into the seventh after a pair of G-MU errors in the sixth led to an unearned run.
All the Patriots needed was to coax three more outs from the Raiders, but the toll of a seven-inning game began to wear on Patriots starter Adam Malay, who managed to get just the first out of the seventh inning. Nate Sloan singled and pinch-hitter Greg Delaney drew a walk bringing Cody Hall to the plate. Hall already had an RBI single under his belt when he delivered the Raiders’ first run in the fifth.
He battled Malay to a full count, then reached out and stroked a single to right field scoring Sloan and Delaney. “He threw me four straight curveballs, and that definitely was in the back of my mind,” Hall said. “Then he threw a fastball away for a ball. The last one was a deuce on the outside corner and I knew I had to somehow put it in play. I was able to punch it the other way.”
Hall’s two-RBI hit closed the gap to one chasing Halay. Shortstop David Adams relieved Halay, and appeared to do his job when Tyler Wildfeir hit a one-hop bouncer to Halay, who was now positioned at shortstop. G-MU’s first stroke of fortune in the seventh collided with the Pats’ misfortune. The easy toss to second base for the force out was dropped putting the winning run on base.
Hall and Wildfeir each moved up a base after Andrew Delmar hit a two-hop groundout sending Corin Todd to the plate.
Again the count was worked full. On the pay-off pitch, Todd hit a high flyball just a couple of paces into the outfield and a foot inside the right field line. The ball was ultimately dropped – a calamitous misfortune for CV-S – allowing Hall and Wildfeir to come home with the winning runs.
“The game ended in an error for them and that was unfortunate, but it was fortunate for us in that these guys did what I asked them to do,” Johnson said.
CV-Springfield scored three runs in its first at-bat, the highlight a two-run single from Sam Dubben on the heels of two G-MU errors.
Adams hit an RBI triple and Halay followed with a run-scoring single putting CV-S up by five runs.
G-MU, who had just one hit over the first four innings, strung four hits together in the bottom of the fifth. After Hall’s RBI, a passed ball and the Patriots’ first error of the game closed the score to 5-3.
Hall and Nate Sloan had two hits apiece for G-MU (16-3), and Hall pitched two innings of relief for his fourth victory this season. “That’s a talented club we played today and we knew it would be a tough game,” Hall said. “Both of their pitchers are great pitchers. We just got a lucky break at the end.”
CVS 3000210 6 7 3
GMU0000304 7 7 4
Tyler Wildfeir, Cody Hall (6, W) and Corin Todd. A.J. Halay, David Adams (7,L) and Spencer Staley. Triples: (CVS) David Adams.