Story by CHRIS BROOKS, sports editor at wellsvillesports.com
WELLSVILLE — With another defeat to the hands of Portville now in the rearview mirror, the Lions of Wellsville were destined to make sure that their tenure before the Spring Break, would end on a positive one on Friday.
With the Rebels of Cuba-Rushford in town for their first of two games with the defending Class B2 Champions, they looked to provide a similar response of their own doing as well. That would show when they grabbed an early lead of Wellsville after a scoreless first frame of action, scoring the first four runs of the game.
But then, a burst. The Lions responded in a big way.
It all began with a bottom of the fourth inning that tied the game up with the Rebels. With a scoreless outing of defense afterthefact, the offense went right back to work in taking the lead away from their visiting opposition for good, scoring five massive runs in the fourth inning to pull ahead and for good, en route towards a 10-5 home victory in the Lion’s Den.
“It was a nice bounce back game from Portville,” said Lions coach Tom Delahunt. “We started out slow, but we got the bats heated up. We didn’t have any errors either, so we played a great defensive game and then got the key hits when we needed them. Cody (Costello) got his first Varsity win on the mound, and had two doubles. It was a big game that we got from him. We were missing a couple of key guys with the break coming up, but we battled through the adversity, especially late in the game.”
After both teams issued a scoreless first inning out of the gate, the hits began to mount up on both sides, with Cuba-Rushford (1-4) leading the way. The Rebels came together to score the first four runs in the second and third innings, led by way of Benson McCumiskey and Aiden Clement, who led the offense with two hits and two RBI each.
With a 4-0 lead in hand to control, the Lions (2-2) now aimed to provide a response of their own. They went on to do just that with a game-tying bottom half of the third inning led by a lead-off double by Cody Costello. He would come in later on off a deep triple from Jere Havens to put the hosts on the board. As time went by, Wellsville worked their way towards a 4-4 tie with Cooper Brockway providing the game-tying RBI on a single.
The momentum created by the team in black and orange carried into the fifth inning, where the comeback was completed with a five-run fourth that propelled them in front of Cuba-Rushford, and then some, holding a 9-4 lead that they were able to maintain for the rest of the game.
In addition to his first career Varsity win on the mound, Costello would power the Wellsville bats with a pair of doubles, while Havens concluded with two hits of his own including his RBI triple. In addition, Brockway added two hits and two RBI, while Dylan Culver had two hits of his own, driving in a run. Costello would provide three strikeouts and a walk to spark his win on the rubber.
On the other side, Cuba-Rushford saw Logan Lewis and Noah Siegel contribute some added help with two hits each at the plate. Jon White struck out four and walked four in his three-inning start for the Rebels.
The team is now off until after the Spring Break, when they return on April 19 with a 5 p.m. road trip to Canandaigua.
Linescore:
Cuba-Rushford 022 000 1 – 5 10 3
Wellsville 004 501 X – 10 9 0
C-R – Jon White (LP) (4K, 4BB), Austin Pinney (4) (3K, BB), and Logan Lewis.
WLSV – Cody Costello (WP) (3K, BB), Cooper Brockway (5) (4K, BB), and Alex Green.
