The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
Local rivals Oneida, VVS meet in quarterfinals
The No. 1seed Vernon-VeronaSherrill hosted their local rival, and No. 8seed, Oneida in the Class B section III quarterfinal, where Oneida was able to pull off the upset against the Devils, winning the contest 3-1.
VERONA, N.Y. » Trailing No. 8 Oneida 3-1 in the bottom of the seventh of Thursday’s Class B quarterfinal, No. 1 Vernon-Verona-Sherrill was down to its final three outs.
Oneida starting pitcher Ryan Chevier had largely kept the potent Red Devil bats quiet through the first six innings of play, scattering a handful of hits yet surrendering a single run.
Chevier induced a fly ball to right field for the first out of the inning before taking on the top of the VVS order. Nate Palmer drew a one-out walk to bring the game-tying run to the plate in the form of VVS slugger Andrew Roden. Chevier quickly jumped ahead of Roden, working an 0-2 count, but Roden battled back, taking a couple of close pitches before forcing a full count.
Then, Oneida’s ace delivered perhaps his best pitch of the season, striking Roden out swinging for the second out of the inning. Chevier’s battery mate Jorden Barlow came up firing after the strikeout, gunning down Palmer on a steal attempt to end the ball game and send Oneida to the Section III semifinals.
“Baseball is a funny game. You can lose 7-2. You can lose 11-5, and then come back and play better,” Oneida coach Ryan Kramer said, referencing two regular season defeats to their longtime rivals. “The better team today won. The last two times we played them, they were the better team. Today, we were the better team.”
Chevier earned the win for Oneida in the completegame performance, scattering seven hits while striking out three.
“He’s our leader on the mound, and he wanted the ball,” Kramer said of Chevier’s performance before touching on the final at-bat of the evening. “Roden is the best player in the area. Chev’ was better in that atbat.”
The Oneida ace credited his defense.
“I knew it was going to be a good game. To be honest, I thought I’d be throwing more pitches than that, but I just let my defense work,” Chevier said. “I kind of learned from past mistakes. Just have to let my defense do the work. Pitch to contact.”
Will Merrell finished the day 1-for-2 with a double and RBI to pace Oneida at the plate. Teammate Lukas Albro went 2-for- 4 with a pair of singles in the Oneida win.
For VVS, Roden batted 2-for-3 with a pair of singles and an intentional walk. Davey Moffett drove in the lone VVS run on a sacrifice fly, and Tyler Rotach added a pair of singles in the defeat. Red Devil starter TJ Horodnick took the loss for VVS.
“The one [run] hanging over there on the scoreboard was more to do with this game than anything else. If you told me we were going to score one run, I would have thought you were crazy,” VVS coach Chad Hodkinson said. “[Chevier] threw a great game. They had great atbats a lot of the night. They were gritty...They are good. We know that. That’s how baseball goes.”
After a scoreless first three innings in the No. 1 vs. No. 8 matchup, Oneida broke through first plating a pair of runs in the top of the fourth inning.
Oneida left fielder Dan Myatt led off the inning with a walk. Then, Logan McClelland laid down a sacrifice bunt, safely reaching whenHorodnick fielded the ball and threw past Roden at first base.
Horodnick recovered to strike out Oneida third baseman Ty D’Arcangelis before Hodkinson elected to relieve his starter for Blake VanDreason. Merrell followed with a sacrifice fly to center field to plate Myatt for the first run of the game. Following a Henry Froass walk, Albro sent a pitch underneath the glove of Zach Nell to score McClelland before VanDreason got out of the inning.
Pitching with a 2-0 lead, Chevier yielded a leadoff single to Rotach in the bottom half of the fourth but retired the next three VVS batters in order to keep Oneida up by two.
AJ Farina took the mound for VVS in the top of the fifth, inducing a doubleplay groundout from Myatt to exit the inning and keep Oneida fromtacking on another run. The Red Devils were able to get to Chevier in the bottom half of the frame. Palmer drew a oneoutwalk, and Roden singled to put runners on the corners. Moffett plated Palmer on a sacrifice fly to center field to cut the Oneida advantage to 2-1, but Chevier got Nell to fly out to minimize the damage.
Oneida answered in the top of the sixth. McClelland drew a walk and pinch-runner Stephen Cafalone advanced to second on a D’Arcangelis sacrifice bunt. Froass smacked a single to plate Cafalone for a 3-1 Oneida lead.
“Being up two, that insurance run in the sixth inning was big,” Kramer said. “Being up two with the idea that [Roden] can’t beat us in that at-bat. It’s only going to tie it.”
VVS threatened in the bottom of the sixth, but D’Arcangelis made the defensive play of the game to help keep the Red Devils at bay. After VanDreason singled with one out, Alex Kipp ripped what appeared to be a base hit between third and short. D’Arcangelis laid out, fully extending to pick the ball and threw to second in time to get VanDreason to stymie the VVS rally. “I was pumped. That was a hell of a play. Best play I’ve ever seen him make,” Chevier said of the web-gem by his third baseman.
Chevier got the next batter on a fly-out to center field to set up the dramatic seventh inning finish.
The win sends Oneida back to the Class B semifinals for the second consecutive season for a matchup with No. 5 seed Westhill at Onondaga Community Col- lege on Saturday.
VVS’ bittersweet season closes following a TVL title and a an 18-2 regular season. A senior-laden team, the Red Devils graduate nine in June.
“It’s hard as hell to see those guys go. They have been around for a long time,” Hodkinson said of his seniors. “I feel terrible for them. They are a good, tight-knit group of kids. I appreciate everything they have ever done for VVS baseball.”