The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
Oneida splits pair on first day of season
Schoff earns MVP with 8-1 victory
ROME >> The Oneida baseball team came out in midseason form offensively with six runs in the first inning of its season opener Sunday against Chittenango, an 8-1 victory in the opening round of Rome Free Academy’s Lew Bennett Tournament.
Coach Ryan Kramer’s squad couldn’t quite find the same level of success in the championship game.
Tyler Schoff tossed six shutout innings for the Black Knights, earning the win in a 6-0 victory and taking MVP honors as well.
“I was proud of themtoday,” said Kramer of his team. “For getting out on the field for the first time in a while and getting some live looks and whatnot, we did well. We faced one of the top pitchers in that second game andwe put it in play. We didn’t strike out a lot either game. We put the ball in play. We hit it hard. We’ve got to limit some mistakes defensively but for the young team that we have, we’re excited for what’s going on.”
Schoff allowed just two hits in his six innings, striking out four and walking two. Derrick Miller drove in two runs for the Black Knights and scored three as well in the victory.
Casey Rich took the loss for Oneida in the championship game, allowing six runs on seven hits with three strike-
outs and a walk.
RFA scored two runs in the first, third and fifth innings, with Miller in the middle of each rally. His RBI single scored Shea Simons in the bottom of the first and Miller came home on a wild pitch for a 2-0 advantage.
After Gino DeBlasiis led off the bottom of the third with a double, Miller reached on an error with DeBlasiis scoring on the play. Miller came around to score on a sacrifice fly by Aaron Simons, extending the lead to 4-0.
DeBlasiis started another RFA rally in the bottom of the fifth with a single and took second on a wild pitch to Miller, who followed with an RBI double. Schoff helped his own cause with an RBI single two batters later, plating Miller for a 6-0 Black Knights’ lead.
Oneida, meanwhile, only had one player advance as far as third with Schoff on the mound and the pitcher stranded him there with a groundout to first. Miller came on to pitch the top of the seventh and tossed a perfect frame to finish the victory.
Despite the loss, Kramer saw some positive things from his team in the batter’s box.
“Our goal was to get one win out of the weekend whether it was the first or second game,” said Kramer. “We said we got to try and keep it three and under in order to beat Tyler Schoff. Todaywe didn’t do that and there’s more reasons why. We beat ourselves a little bit with a couple of critical errors at certain times but, like I said, we didn’t strike out to him a lot and that was the one thing we prided ourselves on before the game. We didn’t want to strike out. We wanted to put the ball in play and see what happens.”
Oneida did pick up its first win of the season earlier in the day. Ryan Chevier earned the win, allowing one unearned run on three hits over five innings with three strikeouts. Tom Rooney took the loss on the hill for Chittenango.
After Chevier tossed a scoreless frame in the top of the first, the Oneida offense sent 10 batters to the plate in the bottom of the inning. James Dick led off with a single and Lukas Albrowalked twobatters later and, with Dick on third, stole second. Jorden Barlow capitalized, driving in two runs with a single for a 2-0 advantage. Tanner Williams singled and Dan Myatt walked with two outs to keep the inning alive and two errors on the Bears led to three more runs. Dick capped the inning with his second hit, an RBI single that extended the lead to 6-0.
“It’s a great way to start when you go line-drive hit, line- drive hit, line- drive hit, you get confidence,” said Kramer. “We’re pretty young and these young guys getting confident right off the bat is a good thing.”
Henry Froass plated Albro with an RBI single in the bottom of the second and, against reliever Tim Ryder, Chevier helped his own cause with an RBI single to score Casey Rich in the bottom of the third and extend the lead to 8-0.
That cushion would be more than enough for Oneida’s pitching staff. Chevier allowed an unearned run in the fifth when Jacob Burgan reached on an infield single and came around to score following two errors, cutting the lead to 8-1.
Logan McClelland came on in relief for Oneida in the top of the sixth and struck out four batters over two scoreless innings to close out the victory.