Horseheads makes it two straight vs. Vestal for Section 4 Class AA baseball championship
Horseheads tidily wrapped up its Section 4 Class AA best-of-three baseball series with Vestal, the 2-1 victory Wednesday backed by big-time pitching and concluded without interruption before lightning was visible a piece down the road west of the Golden Bears’ field.
Josh Stout singled home leadoff batter Dominick Russ for the decisive run with no one out in the sixth, and the Blue Raiders leaned on pitcher Micah Hays from there.
Horseheads was a 4-0 winner in Monday’s Game 1 of the three-game series.
“Two even teams, good pitching, good defense, both know what they’re supposed to be doing - we just happened to score more runs in two games,” said Raiders coach Jeff Limoncelli.
Up next
Horseheads will bring a 17-2 record into the opening round of state playoffs and a matchup with Section 9’s Class AA champion, May 30 at Cantine Field in Saugerties.
Sixth inning the difference
With the score 1-1, Horseheads’ Russ opened the top of the sixth by striking a double to deep left-center, and with Stout at the plate advanced to third when a low pitch eluded Vestal’s catcher. Stout then tagged a sharp base hit to right field to account for the winning run.
The visitors would have had a bit more comfort level had they not left two runners aboard in the inning.
Come home half of the sixth, the Golden Bears had runners at second and third when Hays – a moment after lamenting a strike-three non-call call he craved – induced a line-out to third baseman Mason Holloway for out No. 3.
Horseheads batters went down in order in the seventh, leaving it to the home team to muster a season-extender. And it got good and hairy.
Liam Hughston crunched a two-out double to the fence in right field, and Horseheads prudently opted to intentionally walk Ben Tanton. However, John McIntyre followed by drawing a base on balls that was anything but deliberate, sending Jake Kemmery to the plate with the bases full.
Hays answered, coaxing a 1-2 count as he did for the first two outs of the seventh and getting his man on a called third strike.
Coach Lem offered …
On his pitcher: “Micah has not had the year that we anticipated. He had an injury in the offseason that slowed him down. Lately he’s been sharp. Today I thought he showed as much guts and heart and resilience as I’ve seen in his two years with us.
“And he had to do that against that team. If he didn’t pitch well, we’re getting beat pretty bad. He mixed up his pitches, kept them off balance a little bit. He kept Benny off the base most of the game – he’s one of the best players in Section 4 – he was great and the defense behind him I thought was great.”
On the matchup with Vestal: “I’d rather play them 20 times a year because we’re carbon copies, our kids know what they’re doing, we make plays, we’re aggressive. But it’s one inning here, another there, that’s what wins the game.
“(Vestal coach Tank Anderson) and I were talking. The bittersweet thing is, because we’re pretty close, I said ‘I don’t want to play you in these games because I don’t want to celebrate. Bottom line is, I wish we were Triple-A and you were Double-A because we both should be moving on. We’re the two best teams in Section 4.”
More: Vestal softball ace Reilly Storer voted Athlete of Week; submit your vote for this week
Earlier on
Horseheads struck first when, with runners at first and third, Trevor Reidy finessed a bunt down the first-base line to score Hays, who’d begun the inning by grounding a single to right.
Vestal responded in the fourth when Kemmery’s 6-3 groundout scored Josh Dozoretz, who’d opened the inning by nubbing a single to the left side and advanced to third on a couple baseballs to the backstop.
This article originally appeared on Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin: Blue Raiders of Horseheads celebrate Section 4 baseball title
