The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
Sherrill Post tops Utica Post to stay unbeaten
Roden goes distance on the mound to earn victory
UTICA » Utica Post played solid defense for much of its American Legion Baseball District 5 game against Sherrill Post on Tuesday night, turning three double plays behind starting pitcher Reilly Fischer.
The second inning, however, was an exception and it proved to be the difference.
The hosts committed two two- out errors, resulting in two unearned runs that would be enough for pitcher Andrew Roden who pitched a complete game to earn a 3-1 victory.
“It’s a huge win,” said Sher- rill Post coach John Roden. “We know when we come to play it’s going to be a big game against them and then when we come here and play against them, we know we’re going to have to battle. But the kids have been coming out ready to play.”
His team improved to 7-0 in District 5 play with the victory, including a pair of wins over Utica Post which fell to 6-2 with the loss.
Roden had to work around plenty of traffic in his seven innings of work, allowing eight hits and walking two to go. He was, however, able to get key ground ball outs when he needed them most to limit the hosts to just one run while striking out five.
“Just get ahead of the count,” said coachRoden. “A fewtimes it was 3-2 but he battled and
that’s been a huge thing so far with our success is our starting pitchers have gone out, have done a good job, have gone deep into the innings. Like today, Dewey, he was able to get a lot of ground balls and we made plays for him.”
Fischer took the hardluck loss, allowing just one earned run on six hits with two strikeouts and four walks.
The game between the top two teams in the Air Force division was delayed by 45minutes as water was cleared from the field following a late afternoon shower. After failing to capitalize on consecutive twoout singles in the top of the first, Sherrill mounted a successful two-out rally in the top of the second. Anthony Farina started it with a single before Blake VanDreason and Nate Palmer each reached on errors. The second Utica Post miscue allowed Farina to score the game’s first run. Tyler Rotach added a soft single to score VanDreason and extend the lead to 2-0.
Palmer’s speed helped Sherrill Post add to its lead in the top of the fifth. The catcher led off with a single and stole second on the first pitch to Rotach. Later in the at-bat Palmer broke for third and Rotach laid down a bunt. Palmer never slowed down, rounding third and heading home when the throw went to first and beating the return throw to the plate to give the visitors a 3-0 edge.
“Quite honestly, Nate does what Nate wants to do,” said coach Roden with a chuckle. “I know when Nate’s on there he’s going to create things. I don’t really have to tell him things like that because he knows that. We were looking to advance him to third but with Nate, he has so much instinct, as soon as he saw the pitcher turn his back, he’s going.”
Utica Post got one run back in the bottom of the sixth. Vito Castronovo led off with a single and stole second to get into scoring position for Vin Castronovo, who hit an RBI single and stole second with Myles Felton batting. Roden, however, retired the next three batters to strand him there with the score still 3-1.
Utica Post put pressure on Roden in the bottom of the seventh as well with two-out singles from Ben Killian and Nick LaBella but a soft line out to Dylan Shlotzhauer at second ended the game.
“Just keep hitting my spots and trusting my infielders,” said the pitcher. “I meanMoose (Ryan Palmer) did a great job, Nate did a great job, Dylan, all the infielders did a great job. They really fielded the ball well today.
“We’ve just been grinding out every at-bat, playing hard and coming ready to play every time.”