By JOHN ANDERSON
(Cutline: Ty Vogel with his parents, Heather and Shane, after clinching a spot in the college World Series)
One year ago today, Ty Vogel was on the mound pitching Wellsville High School baseball into the Section V finals — and a main pitching part of back-to-back championships.
On Sunday, Vogel was on the mound as his college team — the Niagara Thunderwolves — won the NJCAA Region III title and returned to the college World Series. Niagara also known as NCCC or N-trip, is 51-6 on the season and have advanced to their 10th NJCAA Region III Div. III championship in program history. NCCC plays on May 23 at TVA Credit Union Ballpark in Johnson City, Tenn.
Vogel is 4-1 on the season and has thrown 28 innings, striking out 21 with zero blown saves. At Wellsville, Vogel threw a perfect game in the Section V finals, a 1-0 win over Notre Dame of Batavia as a junior.
NCCC coach Matt Clingersmith knows a lot about winning. While the team lost 10-9 to Herkimer earlier in the day, Niagara defeated Herkimer in the title game, 18-3. It was Clingersmith’s 750th career win in his 20 seasons coaching with a 750-233-1 record for the Thunderwolves.
Last season, NCCC went 51-0 before losing in the World Series. With so much talent coming back, he expected to rely mostly on sophomores. However, Vogel, a freshman, earned a spot in the rotation and as a closer.
“Ty has been a blessing and a surprise,” said Clingersmith. “He was a starter and now he’s transitioned into a reliever for the World Series. He had a solid season for us. When you have a World Series team in the NCAA’s, you are usually sophomore-heavy. But as a freshman, he beat a nationally-ranked MCC team, our regional rivals from FLCC and just as important, he went out and won the game we expected to win.”
As a Section V champion in basketball and baseball, Vogel played three sports at Wellsville including soccer. Clingersmith said Vogel wanted to focus year-round on baseball and bought into their pitching programs.
“We are a pitching school and we knew he was talented coming out of Wellsville (under head coach Tom Delahunt). He pitched and won big games at Wellsville, so he has winning in his DNA,” Clingersmith said. “We’ve had three guys drafted (by the Major Leagues) on the mound the last two years. Ty has bought into our program and philosophy and as a result, his velocity is up.”
Then entire pitching staff has been a beauty to watch. In the elimination game, Luke Liedka, in just his fourth appearance of the season, allowed one unearned run on three hits, struck out five and walked four in four innings pitched before Joe Czaja came out of the bull pen and recorded the win, giving way to Vogel to close it out.
Derrick Allen has turned into one of the best pitchers in the nation, going 8-0 with 81 strikeouts in 60 innings and a 2.39 ERA. Keegan Bazinet is 11-0 with 80 strikeouts in 65 innings and a 1.66 ERA. Mike Munzert is 7-0 and Matt Kasprowicz is 4-0. The team has used 22 different pitchers.
Keegan Bazinet, Mike Schaefer, Evan Kohr, Dalton Harper and Cam Gravelle were selected to the all-NJCAA Region III tournament team. Harper was also named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player.
As Clingersmith prepares to take the team to Tennessee, he reflected on the season and feels the team knows how to win because of the losses.
“It was awesome to once again win the NJCAA Region III title and when you are winning, it’s easier to coach,” Clingersmith said. “Last year we were perfect during the regular season. This year, we took some one-run losses and teams came back to beat us — and I think it made us stronger. It felt like last year, going into the World Series 51-0, when we lost our first game, it was like the wheels were spinning and falling off. This season? We are more battle-tested because we lost a couple games.”
