ADDISON — Whether you employ the special team efforts right out of the starting gate to set the tone, or transition it to the end of a close battle when you need it most, one thing is for certain: Baserunning is king.
In the midst of a near game-long pitcher’s duel between Wellsville’s Karson Grover and Addison’s star southpaw Andrew Jones on Thursday, the runs assembled off the production line were going to be rare to come by. The Lions would go one step ahead of the host Knights after the first inning of play, holding the advantage within their possession for the foreseeable future.
From that point forward, it was centered on playing with the lead intact.
With Addison chasing after their coattails, the Lions needed more insurance to keep them out of reach. Still up by one run going into the last two innings, the baserunning high-jump kicked into high gear, the visitors in black and orange searched for that perfect moment to jackhammer their way through the hosts in maroon.
How about two steals of home?
In the last two innings of play, the red hot Lions brewed up a magical concoction around the bases. That being a steal on home plate in both the sixth and seventh innings to account for two major pieces of insurance — runs they desperately needed after the Knights responded with a pair of runs to close the gap behind them to one. Despite it, Trenton Green came through the clutch in relief of Grover to slam the door shut on Addison to claim their ninth win in their first 10 games of the campaign with a 5-4 edge.
“We were having a difficult time, the Jones pitcher was really dealing tonight,” Lions coach Tom Delahunt said. “We were able to get on base a couple of times and scratch out a couple runs against him. This was a Sectional-like feel facing a tough team with a tough pitcher. With some baserunning, it was a very good game to have and to be in situations like this. It was pretty tense in the seventh when they got the two runs, but both offensively and defensively, we had to come through and make plays to earn this win.”
Pacing the first outing of attack for Wellsville (9-1) and their 2-0 lead was Alex Green, who assisted in breaking the ice with a big smack to the outfield, which resulted in an RBI double. After Addison responded with a run in the bottom of the first, a scoreless second inning rang out before the offenses assembled a run on each side — the top of the second seeing a Ty Vogel double drive in a run to take a 4-1 lead.
Addison again chipped away by cutting the deficit in half, but the pitcher’s duel would begin to take shape once again between Grover and Jones, as the two hurlers combined to record 18 strikeouts at the plate, seven of them from Grover across four innings before being relieved, while Jones went from the third inning to the end in relief.
For Delahunt, he’s proud of his pitchers and their performances to keep their defensive fire burning.
“Our pitchers did a real nice job,” he said. “Karson gave us four strong innings and he hasn’t done a whole lot of pitching. For him to come out and make big pitches at big times to hold us in there before we turned to Trenton. He pounds the strike-zone just as much, and he was solid again in relief. Both of those guys came through for us when runs were at a premium.”
With the Lions carrying a 3-2 lead going into the sixth inning, it was time for the special teams to punch their way through. After a lead-off walk from Cooper Brockway in the inning, the Wellsville senior went on a robbery spree of the bags in the infield before turning the jets loose on a humongous steal of home plate to branch the advantage to 4-2.
After the defense came up with their final goose egg to hand out to Addison, the Lions would deliver their coup-de-grace — a second steal on home plate with two outs, following back-to-back strikeouts to start the frame. With Aiden Cowburn and his single to left allowed him to steal second and third along the way, Ty Vogel reached base off a walk to set up a runners-on-the-corners game plan.
Wellsville made the most of every bit of it, as they performed the double steal on Addison which allowed Cowburn to score from third base to extend the Lions lead to a much-needed four-run cushion going into the bottom of the seventh. But the Knights could not find the response to counter Wellsville with, as they held down the fort behind a dynamic web-gem play from Cowburn at second base off a ground ball, falling over to his backside in the process of it to make a throw to first and record the out while being briefly immobilized on the ground.
The Lions mustered five runs off five hits on the attack, with Cowburn leading the efforts with his 2-for-4 outing that consisted of a double, two runs scored and four stolen bases. Cooper Brockway stole three more bases to go with his hit.
On the mound, the win was Grover’s to carry to the end, as he became the seventh Lions pitcher to record a win on the mound behind his seven-strikeout, two-walk tenure.
Coming up after the weekend, the Lions will mark their return to the diamond back over the road, as they begin preparing for a 5 p.m. road trip up north to visit the Marcus Whitman Wildcats.
Wellsville 201 001 1 – 5 5 1
Addison 101 000 2 – 4 6 1
WLSV – Karson Grover (7K, 2BB), Trenton Green (5) (5K, BB) and Alex Green.
ADD – Tyler Miller (K), Andrew Jones (LP, 3) (11K, 2BB) and Spencer Westervelt.
Canisteo-Greenwood 8, Fillmore 2
CANISTEO — Behind the dynamic complete game performance shelled out by the arm of Canisteo-Greenwood’s Taige Stewart, paired with a rampant first inning start by their bats, the host Chargers were able to strike all chords on the diamond Thursday night with the Eagles of Fillmore in town for a visit, as they galloped their way towards the direction of an 8-2 victory.
Fillmore (3-2) would manage to work their way onto the board with a score in each of the last two innings of play to eliminate Stewart’s shutout bid. At the end of the night, the Eagles scored two runs off three total hits — two of them off the bat of Nolan Krzeminski, who captained the offensive efforts.
Jude Beardsley provided the final hit, pairing it with an RBI while James Hillman chipped in with an RBI of his own.
Fillmore 000 001 1 – 2 3 3
Canisteo-Greenwood 500 021 X – 8 12 2
FIL – Isaac Wilcox (3BB), Kalen Beardsley (LP, 1) (3K, 2BB), Brayden Hennard (5) (5K, BB) and Nolan Krzeminski.
C-G – Taige Stewart (WP) (CG, 10K 6BB) and Thomas Sirianni.
Andrew Ordway photo gallery
