Crush hand Salt Cats first loss of the season
Tim Hunter applies the tag on Cortland's Broderick Santilli. (Photo: ROGER HAGAN)
By JAMES HADNOT
SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Syracuse Salt Cats three-hole hitter, Christian Rishel (East Stroudsburg University) steps to the plate in the bottom of the ninth. His team is down 4-0, but two base runners are anxious for a reason to take off. From the bullpen, shouts of “Nobody Better, Nobody Better” ring out. Rishel rips a ball to left-center to score both base runners, but that is where the comeback would conclude for the Salt Cats.
Syracuse fell to the Cortland Crush, 4-2 to chalk up its first loss of the New York Collegiate Baseball League season.
“They had some potential opportunities to capitalize, they did," said Syracuse Salt Cats manager, Mike Martinez. "We had the same opportunity, and we did not capitalize.”
The Salt Cats left a total of 12 base runners stranded on the base paths. In both the top of sixth and the top of the seventh, Syracuse had the bases loaded, but could not produce any runs.
On the other hand, Cortland pushed across the bulk of its runs in the first five innings. The Crush scored one run in the second inning off a Salt Cats error. In the fifth inning, a bomb by William Haaland (Trinity University) and an RBI single by Derek Martin (Southeastern University) stretched the visitors lead to 3-0.
“Our hitting has been going well over the last week and we kind of rode that momentum into today,” said Cortland Crush hitting coach, Jonathan Buczek.
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Six out of the nine starters for Cortland recorded a hit, and the pitching for the Crush was rolling as well. The away team held the Salt Cats scoreless for eight innings, only allowing three hits. Throughout those innings, Buczek did know that this Salt Cats squad can only be tamed for so long.
“It was only a matter of time before the Salt Cats ran into some offense,” said Buczek. “We were fortunate that they did it a little to late.”
Next up for the Salt Cats is an exhibition game against the Elmira Pioneers. The game is in Elmira, first pitch set for 7:05pm.
Cortland travels to Rome on Tuesday to play the Generals. A 7:05 p.m. start is scheduled at Delutis Field.
