Story by CHRIS BROOKS, photos by Raegan Vogel
WAYLAND — The countdown to Sectionals was officially on, and for the Lions of Wellsville, they looked to use their last two games of the regular season to fully weld their possession of Class B’s top seed entering the big dance, beginning this upcoming weekend.
The road ahead will not get any easier, and that was proven on Monday during their road trip to visit Wayland-Cohocton. In what could be one of Class B’s potential Finals matchups in the near future, the Lions and the host Eagles gave everyone in attendance their money’s worth in what was a very close battle from start to finish.
After seeing their early advantage out of the gate falter away to the hands of Wellsville, some late momentum was built by the Eagles to help turn the tide in their favor to re-deadlock the game down the homestretch, applying all sorts of pressure to the Lions along the way. With the visitors in black and orange facing their final out square in the face, Matt Ritter stepped in and took command himself.
With one giant swing.
The Wellsville sophomore unleashed his fury on a drive to deep left field. With the Wayland-Cohocton outfielders giving chase to try and make a play on it, the ball continued to sail and sail through the sky until it cleared the wall, as he brought the thunder on his booming solo homer to propel the Lions ahead, ultimately for good to help seal up a magnificent and thrilling 3-2 victory over the Eagles.
“Matt had a couple of rough at-bats early in the game. He made a nice adjustment, got a pitch he could handle and he absolutely crushed it,” said Lions coach Tom Delahunt. “We had 12 hits, but we hit into a lot of double plays early on, along with a couple of nice throwdowns they had to some us in some innings. We had some chances, including the home run, but we couldn’t really find a way to get the runners across when we did. Tyler (Vogel) pitched extremely well and put us on his back in his outstanding outing. Way-Co is a great team, and they came into tonight at 14-4. We’re rolling ourselves, so it was going to be another one of those tough battles.”
Following Wayland-Cohocton’s first run of the game of some key special teams play around the bases, the Lions (17-1) took action themselves later on in the top of the third inning, as they built off of Ty Vogel’s 1-2-3 of the Eagles bats in the second and constructed a go-ahead two-run frame in the third.
Vogel, along with Alex Green fueled the fire for the offense at the top of the order, each delivering an RBI to put the Lions up by one.
Wellsville would continue to keep the lead intact across the next two shutout innings, with Vogel maintaining his presence on the mound to keep the Eagles at a standstill. But in the bottom of the sixth, the hosts came together and established one last heroic effort to get back into the game, as they grabbed the game-tying run to do so.
But the final tie of the game would not last long entering the last inning of play, as Ritter came in through the clutch during Wellsville’s final out, blasting a solo homer to left field to give them the 3-2 lead back before using three outstanding plays in the field — a catch in left field by Gavin Haggerty, and two big stops from Aiden Cowburn at second, to lock up the victory.
A victory the team needed, according to Delahunt.
“I told the kids that this was good to have going into Sectionals. A one-run game throughout the entire night, where every play means something and there’s a lot of stress and pressure involved as well. I’m happy we were able to take part in this, and I’m even happier to have come out with a win.” he said.
Wellsville totaled three runs off 12 hits at the plate, with Cowburn and his 3-for-4 outing leading the way. Vogel and Trenton Green each chipped in two hits.
On the mound, Vogel went all seven innings while holding Wayland-Cohocton to four hits, fanning eight and walking three.
The Lions will close the book on their regular season coming up Wednesday night, hosting Arkport-Canaseraga in a 5 p.m. first pitch.
Wellsville 002 000 1 – 3 12 1
Way-Co 100 001 0 – 2 4 2
WLSV – Ty Vogel (WP) (CG, 8K, 3BB) and Alex Green.
W-C – Anthony Schirmer (LP) (CG, 3K, 3BB) and Ethan Loop.