The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
Oneida boys take on Rome Free Academy
ONEIDA, N.Y. » Entering the final inning of Friday’s contest against Rome Free Academy, the Oneida baseball team carried a 10-2 lead.
Then, things began to snowball a bit for Ryan Kramer’s Oneida side.
A triple, a single, a walk, a dropped 3rd strike, three more seeing-eye singles, and all of a sudden, RFA had a pulse. Trailing Oneida 10-7, with two outs and the bases loaded in the top of the seventh, RFA batter Riley Brawdy represented the go-ahead run.
Kramer’s answer for the bases- loaded jam was right fielder Vinny Leibl.
After a few warm-up pitches, Leibl squared off against Brawdy, falling behind in the count before coming back to induce the last out of the inning with a fly ball to center field for the save and a 10-7 Oneida win.
“We have seven games in five days. It’s one of those things where we knew it would be a short stack and if we threw, it was going to be a couple of pitches here, a couple pitches there,” Kramer said Liebl’s relief work. “Vinny is someone we trust where he comes in a big moment and stepped up for us and got the big out.”
Oneida starting pitcher Ryan Chevier earned the win on Friday, tossing four innings and giving up two runs (one earned) while striking out four.
“For his first time out, it was a good outing,” Kramer said of his starter. “We knew going in with it being cold, he was not going to throw a ton of pitches, but he was steady. Started off just pounding the zone with his three pitches, had command of the zone, which was a nice thing to see and something to build on moving forward.”
As a team, Oneida showed good discipline at the plate, inducing 12 walks. Leibl went 1-of-2with a dou-
ble and a pair of RBI and teammate Will Merrell added two hits and an RBI of his own. Oneida leadoff man Lukas Albro had a hit, an RBI, and three walks. Chevier aided his own cause on the mound with a solo shot in the bottom of the second.
RFA starter Preston Mecca was hit with the loss for RFA in two-and-twothirds innings of work.
Oneida wasted little time plating the first run of the game. Mecca walked Oneida’s 1-2-3 hitters to load the bases with no outs before Albro scampered home from third on a passed ball for a 1-0 Oneida lead. Mecca hit Oneida cleanup batter Henry Froass to once again load the bases, butwas able to induce a fielder’s choice grounder fromthe next batter, Jordan Barlow, to erase Dan Myatt at home. Liebl sent a bases loaded double over the center fielder to drive in a pair. Zach Laquay followed with a bloop single to drive in Barlow before Will Merrill capped the Oneida outburst with a two-out single to score Liebl and give Oneida a 5-run lead heading to the top of the second.
RFA answered right back in the top of the second. After Ryan Marello reached on an error, Owen Hetherington singled to put a pair of runners on for RFA with no out. Adam Williamson’s sacrifice fly plated Marello for RFA’s first run of the contest. Barlow caught Hetherington stealing for the second out of the inning, but RFA was able to tack on another run to pull within three at 5-2 be- fore Chevier struck out Josh Wood to end the frame.
With one out in the bottom of the second, Chevier clubbed a homer over the fence for a 6-2 Oneida lead.
“I didn’t think it was out,” Chevier said of his initial reaction to the shot, adding modestly, “The wind carried it.”
His coach gave him more credit.
“That’s his first varsity home run. Good for him. We keep stressing the idea of hitting gap-to-gap line drives and he hit that right on the button and it kept going,” Kramer said.
The visitors nearly added another run in the top of the third. After drawing a walk, Alex Sticca attempted to score on an Aaron Simons hit, but Albro made a impressive relay to Barlow to nab Sticca at home to keep the score at 6-2.
Oneida tacked on three more runs in the bottom of the third to grow its lead to 9-2 and chase Mecca for Jus- tin Swavely.
Chevier breezed through his final inning of work, retiring three consecutive RFA batters and ending his night on the mound with a strikeout.
Josh Goode worked the fifth inning for Kramer’s side, keeping RFA off the scoreboard in a quick, four-batter inning.
Oneida almost had another big inning in the bottom of the frame, scoring a run and loading the bases with one out, but Swavely escaped the jamby inducing a 6-2-3 double play to keep the hosts lead at 10-2.
RFA added a run in the top of sixth, capitalizing on a two-out single by Ben Minicozzi that scored Marello for to pull within seven at 10-3 before eventually falling in a dramatic top of the seventh, 10-7.
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