The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
Oneida senior throws perfect game
VERONA, N.Y. » After using four pitchers in an extra-inning win over Camden on Monday, Vernon-Verona-Sherrill needed a solid start from Andrew Wuest against Oneida on Tuesday.
The senior southpaw came through in a big way.
In a complete game effort, Wuest struck out three, scattering four hits and two walks to lead the Red Devils to a 6-1 win.
“We knew it was a busy week, an important week to get started off on the right foot. Didn’t start off too well yesterday, and but our kids were gritty enough and resilient to come back. We were just trying to carry the momentum through today. Yesterday would have been kind of pointless if we did not come through and win today,” VVS coach Chad Hodkinson said. “Wuest threw well for us... He’s not going to rack up a lot of strikeouts. He’s going to stay off the barrell of the bat. He kept his composure. He threw srikes. That’s the big difference between this game and the other games we’ve played in the past few days, strikes. If you throw strikes, we are going to be in games.”
The VVS bats staked their starter to a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the third, and when Oneida closed the gap with a run in the fifth, the Red Devils answered with four more runs for Wuest in the bottom of the sixth.
“It feels like we have some depth, where we aren’t just looking to find the nine best hitters now. We have players that we can shuffle in and if there are players we keep out, there is a reason for it,” Hodkinson said. “The bottom of the order is big. We tried to lengthen our order out as much as we can.”
Bryce Cousin went 1-for-2withan RBI for VVS. Ryan Shantal added a 2-for-3 performance with a run scored and RBI.
Ryan Chevier took the loss for Oneida, allowing six runs in five innings on the mound.
“I think he did alright. We have to get some pitches in his arm to
get him going down the stretch, and we did just that,” Oneida coach Ryan Kramer said. “I think he threw well enough where we should have been able to be in the game.”
Lukas Albro finished the night 1-for-3 with an RBI double. Dylan McClelland went 1-for-3, scoring a run abd doubling for Oneida in the defeat.
The game was largely a pitchers’ duel through the first few innings of action.
After a scoreless first, Oneida put a runner in scoring position in the top of the second when Jordan Barlow moved Andrew Brown, who had singled in the prior atbat, to second on a sacrifice bunt. Wuest retired the next two Oneida batters on a fly ball to center and a pop-up to second to escape the inning unscathed.
VVS put two on with two outs in the bottom half of the inning via a Tyler Rotach walk and Ryan Shantal single, but Chevier responded with an inningending strikeout to keep the teams level heading into the third.
The Red Devils converted their opportunities in the third frame, taking advantage of back-to-back singles from Bryce Palmer andWuest to lead off the inning. With two on and nobody out, Blake VanDreason singled Palmer home for a 1-0 lead. An out later, Cousin sent a sacrifice fly toward the warning track to plate Wuest before Chevier induced a groundout to second to close the inning withOneida trailing by two.
Wuest retired the Oneida side in order in the top of the fourth. In the bottom half of the inning, Shantal hit a one-out single to center field. A Jacob Horodnick fielder’s choice erased Shantal at second, and Barlow nabbed Horodnick on a steal attempt at second to close the inning with no damage done.
Oneida took a run back in the top of the fifth when McClelland smack a oneout double, crossing home plate on an Albro double one batter later.
Barlow came upwith the third out for Oneida again in the bottom of the fifth, throwing out Wuest on a steal attempt at second to send it to the top of the sixth with VVS on top 2-1.
Oneida appeared poised to tie things up in the sixth when Vinny Leibl led off the frame with a double, but VVS caught the Oneida senior in a rundown between second and third on a Ty D’Arcangelis ball to the left side of the infield for the first out of the inning. D’Arcangelis eventually worked his way to third with two outs and Barlow at the plate, but Oneida caught another bad break when Barlow blistered a Wuest offering right at Rotach, who calmly secured the liner for the final out.
“He’s been hitting the ball well lately, just right at people. It’s the game of baseball,” Kramer said. “That stuff happens. We had many other situations where we had a chance to do some things, but we just didn’t execute. We didn’t make plays. We didn’t put the ball in play. We didn’t do the things to win ball games, especially against a good team, you have to do.”
With a 2-1 lead, VVS opened things up in the bottom of the second. Alex Kipp sparked the rally with a lead-off double. Cousin followed with a single, and Gavin Miller drew a walk to load the bases with no outs. Colton Wong, pinchrunning for Kipp, scored on an error at short on the next at-bat, and Cousin scored on a Shantal fielder’s choice. With the bases still loaded, Oneida got lead runner on the force out at home on a Palmer fielder’s choice. Horodnick followed with a bases-loaded walk to score Miller for a 5-1 Red Devil lead and chase Chevier. VVS squeezed one more run out of the inning on a Shantal RBI to a a 6-1 lead into the final inning.
Wuest pitched a 1-2-3 top of the seventh to secure the Red Devils’ fifth straight TVL Pioneer victory.