Two teams, two big innings

TED WADDELL
Posted 4/10/19

JEFFERSONVILLE, NY — Local high school rivals battled at Lions Field in an early season, non-league varsity baseball game on Tuesday, April 2. The home team, Bulldogs of Sullivan West, started …

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Two teams, two big innings

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JEFFERSONVILLE, NY — Local high school rivals battled at Lions Field in an early season, non-league varsity baseball game on Tuesday, April 2.

The home team, Bulldogs of Sullivan West, started out with high hopes for their second outing of the new season of swats; the day before, Bryce Reimer pitched a perfect game against Tuxedo, striking out 14 batters in a 11-0 win over the Tornadoes.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the bleachers, the Eldred Yellowjackets took to the field for their first time of the year.

In the opening frame, Eldred jumped out to a 3-1 lead.

Wind ‘er up! Sullivan West’s starting pitcher Chad Mercado

The second inning was scoreless, but in the third, the home team sent five runners across the plate.

Eldred ruled the fourth frame, scoring six runs. The Bulldogs took back a bit of territory, posting three runs to end the inning in a 9-9 tie.

The Yellowjackets racked up three in the fifth, while Sullivan West posted two. At the end of the frame, the visitors were up one run at 12-11.

In the sixth inning, both teams scored twice, closing out the frame with Eldred in the lead 14-13.

The final frame was a bit anticlimactic, with the Yellowjackets (1-0) sending another runner home, as Sullivan West (1-1) couldn’t quite come up with a last-ditch effort to overcome the 15-13 loss.

Eldred posted a total of four doubles into the scorebook, multi-base pokes by Chett Kelty, Halter Sawyer, Patrick Kinney and Joe Furlipa.

Both teams showed a lot of promise for an early season game, and both squads revealed they have some kinks to work out in terms of errors and waiting for the perfect pitch to cross the plate at just the right time.

Regarding hurlers sent up to the mound, the day was also a learning experience for both teams, as Sullivan West sent four pitchers into the caldron (Chad Mercado, Kyle Reimer, James DeAveiro and Dan Hemmer), while Eldred tossed a trio including Dylan Jennings, Nick Curreri and Pat Kinney into the fray.

Action equals reaction. Sullivan West’s catcher Matt Peters in pursuit of an errant ball.

Sullivan West is captained by three seniors: James DeAveiro, Alec Milucky and Kyle Reimer.

“It was too close for comfort,” said Milucky in a post-game interview, adding, “We have a couple of wrinkles to work out [but] I think we’ll do pretty good.”

Eldred is led by three captains, all seniors: Patrick McKinney, Nick Curreri and Joe Furlipa.

“It’s a really good start, we haven’t played in a while...we made a couple of errors, but we were able to win,” said Kinney.

Asked his take on the game, Curreri replied, “We made some errors, but we’re better than that… We play hard.”

Reflecting on the subject of things to work on and things to come, Furlipa added, “If we clean up some errors, we can definitely win 100%.”

“This was a good learning experience... We have a lot of young guys in the lineup this year,” said Bulldogs returning coach Bill Kirk, adding, “Both teams battled. It was something!”

Joshua Santoro is back at the helm of Eldred’s varsity swatters.

“Wow! Fantastic game played by two well coached and well-disciplined teams of young men. It could have been anybody’s game,” said the ever-effervescent and always high-spirited coach of the Yellowjackets.

sports, baseball, Sullivan West Bulldogs, Eldred Yellowjackets, team rivals

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