The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
Camden on brink of elimination after defeat
Blue Devils face rematch with Red Rams in elimination game today
Camden didn’t let the fact that it entered the Section III Class A baseball playoffs as a No. 12 seed stop it from rolling through the first three rounds of the double-elimination tournament, knocking off No. 5 East Syracuse-Minoa, No. 4 Christian Brothers Academy and No. 1 Jamesville-DeWitt.
Saturday, the Blue Devils got a crack at No. 2 seed Whitesboro but Avery Cook kept them from keeping that run going.
The sophomore tossed a complete-game, three-hit shutout and had the game-winning RBI single in the bottom of the sixth inning of a 5-0 victory that landed his team in the final.
“It feels great,” he said of advancing to the final. “I’m really excited for Monday. It’s just great.”
Camden starter Wyatt Palmer matched him zero for zero for much of the game, not allowing a hit through the first five innings before giving up five runs and five hits in the sixth.
“He was battling,” said Camden coach Jake Bates of Palmer. “He pitched really well all game, put us in a position to win. We had a couple guys in scoring position throughout the first five innings. We couldn’t come up with the big hit but Wyatt did everything we asked him to do.”
Joey Panuccio started Whitesboro winning rally with a one- out single to break up Palmer’s no-hitter. Matt Parkinson kept the inning going two batters later with a two-out single, putting runners on the corners for Cook. The sophomore grounded a single back up the middle to score Panuccio with the game’s first run.
“Stay up the middle, stay opposite field, don’t try to kill the ball,” said Cook of his mentality at the plate in that situation. “Just make sure I do anything I
can to get the run in. Find a hole.
“I think it was a fastball. I just stayed up the middle with it, didn’t try to do too much with it. I wasn’t sure off the bat but it found a hole up the middle. It wasn’t great contact but it does the job.”
Doug Rando followed with a third straight single that would have loaded the bases but an error on the Blue Devils brought Parkinson home and advanced the other two runners. Zach Wessinger then roped a two-run double to end Palmer’s day and Brad Blumgreeted reliever Hunter Holliday with an RBI single for a 5-0Whitesboro edge.
John Mitchell provided the majority of the Blue Devils’ offense, doubling in the second and fifth innings, but was stranded in scoring position both times.
Camden also had a chance in the top of the sixth, putting three runners on base. Holliday led off with a single but was caught stealing second. Nigel Meagher reached on a dropped third strike with two outs and, after he stole second, Rowan Connor was intentionally walked. Cook stranded both runners when he fielded a Kaleb Ciani bunt back to the mound and threw to first for the third out, keeping the game scoreless before his team’s big rally in the home half of the inning.
“That was awesome,” said Cook of the five-run cushion. “It didn’t give me any pressure in the top of the seventh inning. I could just do my thing and throw out there.”
Cook returned to the mound in the top of the seventh and set the Camden side down in order, striking out two to bring his total for the game to 11.
With the loss, Camden will have a rematch with No. 1 J-D in an elimination game at 4 p.m. today at Onondaga Community College. The winner advances to the final to face Whites- boro in Monday’s championship.
“We’ve lost three times in the last three years in the semifinals so we got another crack at it,” said Bates. “If they didn’t put that format in place we wouldn’t be in that position so we gotta find a way to have a short memory and bounce back tomorrow.”