AFTON – Unadilla Valley was one pitch away from another clean inning. A walk to Unatego’s number nine hitter, a missed pick-off attempt, and two errors led to the Spartans’ three-run rally in the third and a 6-2 victory in the Midstate Athletic Conference baseball championship game at Afton High School Thursday afternoon.

Dan Shelton logged seven innings for the Spartans to earn the victory, one in which he was nicked for single runs in the first and last innings.

“Unatego is just solid all the way up the middle, and they had a good bounce in their step out there,” said UV coach Gary Alford. “They’re a good team to watch.”

UV senior pitcher Brett Smith allowed just one baserunner through the first 2 2-3 innings, and that lone baserunner, Phil Youngs, was cut down on a double play. Unatego’s number nine hitter, Tyler Butler, managed to work a walk out of a three-two count with two outs in the third to begin the unlikely rally.

But Butler’s presence on the basepaths nearly resulted in the same fate as Youngs. Butler’s mindset was clearly to steal second. Smith recognized the baserunning threat, and threw over to first baseman Kurt Haycook catching Butler between first and second base. Haycook ran toward second base and delivered a throw to Brandon Miles at the second-base bag. The hustling Butler, though, narrowly beat the tag.

From there, Youngs hit an RBI single up the middle. The throw to home base in an ill-fated attempt to catch Butler allowed Youngs to move to second, and Youngs took yet another base when another off-line UV throw bounced into center field. Kellen Komenda’s RBI single gave Unatego the lead for good, and Komenda made his way all the way around to home plate after back-to-back throwing errors by UV.

“That’s typical varsity baseball,” Alford said of the mistakes in the third inning. “We just have to eliminate those and get better. When these situations come up, we just have to know what to do.”

Shelton sailed after giving up a single run in the first inning. Zach Montgomery’s RBI groundout scored Justin Hofer for UV’s first run of the game. UV didn’t get another hit until Hofer’s lead-off single in the fourth, and its other run came in the seventh when Brandon Kuhn singled and eventually scored on a wild pitch.

Shelton helped his own cause lacing a two-run single in the bottom of the sixth that made it a 6-1 game.

“This was a good game for us, and we have some young kids out there that gained experience playing today,” Alford said. “It’s too bad for our seniors, but someone has to lose.”

Youngs and Shelton each went 2-for-3 to lead Unatego.

UV 100 000 1 2 4 4

Unat. 003 102 x 6 8 2

Dan Shelton (W) and Lucas DeJoy. Brett Smith (L) and Zach Montgomery. Doubles: (U) Travis Woods.

G-MU 8, Laurens 2 (Wed)

G-MU 8, Franklin 5

COPES CORNERS - Gilbertsville-Mount Upton finished the 2012 season with back-to-back home victories defeating Laurens on Wednesday and Franklin Thursday afternoon.

Yesterday, Raiders senior DeMario Reed capped a standout four-year varsity career fanning 17 Franklin batters in a four-hit complete game. Jason Barrows was 2-for-4 to lead the G-MU batsmen, who were beneficiaries of 10 Franklin errors.

“It was a nice way for DeMario to close his high school career,” said G-MU coach Rick Mohrein. “He was just putting it past guys.”

The win over Laurens was not that dissimilar from the victory over Franklin. Barrows was dominant on the hill for G-MU (7-11) finishing with a career-best 14 strikeouts, while allowing just two walks and three hits.

Codi Mabie had two hits and two runs scored, and teammates Austin Burnside and Rian West drove in two runs apiece. “Jason struggled with his location early in the season, but his last two outings he was really hitting his zone,” Mohrein said. “He put it out there and made guys swing and miss.”

Lau 000 020 0 2 3 3

G-MU 032 003 x 8 3 1

Jason Barrows (W) and Austin Burnside. Ryan Holmes (L) and Mitchell Barra.

G-MU 8, Franklin 5

Fklin 002 030 05 4 10

GMU 010 502 8 6 1

DeMario Reed (W) and Austin Burnside. Joe Terrano (L) and Billy Davis. Doubles: (G) Codi Mabie, Burnside. (F) Terrano, Alex Brownell.