Frank Speziale Photo
CAMPBELL – The Chenango Hellcats Legion baseball team took to the road this past weekend, notching in four games into their record and picking up their first win of the 2016 summer season along the way.
It was the Randy Naylor Classic championship, an eight team tournament that gathered together some of the top talent in the legion baseball world in our area.
“We got a lot of baseball in, it was good,” said The Chenango Hellcats head coach Jason Miller.
Miller expressed the importance of traveling to this prestigious tournament, saying that it was a team building experience for his players.
Ultimately it was Tioga who would claim the crown over Oneonta, winning the tournament, defeating them them 8-6.
O: 1 0 0 0 1 0 4– 6
T: 2 1 1 1 0 3 x– 8
For the Hellcats of Chenango County, it was a much different story, as they did indeed pick up their first win of the season, however, overall would post a tournament record of 1-3.
“We should've been 4-0 or 3-1 but we just didn’t play the best. Oneonta beat us 5-3 with no earned runs. We out hit them 8-2, we pounded on them, it is just the errors that killed us,” said coach Miller.
Right out of the gates on Friday, June 10, The Hellcats did face Oneonta – the eventual team who did take second place overall – and as coach Miller attested Oneonta would get outhit by his Hellcats in this contest, 8-2 in favor of Chenango.
However, despite the Hellcats connecting significantly more with the ball, Oneonta would capitalize on many key errors committed by Chenango.
Chenango would suffer through five errors in the game, while Oneonta would only have two. This created enough of a distance in the base running by either team, that Oneonta was successful in blanking The Hellcats through six innings.
The Hellcats would eventually string together a three run inning in the seventh inning, however, already down 5-0 at that point put the Hellcats in too much of a hole to dig out of.
Nate Scheer would pitch for the Hellcats tossing out seven strikeouts, while Keaton Mark would pitch for Oneonta recording nine of his own.
Hellcat batters: Joe Devona 1-4 with a run,Paden Burlison 1-4 with a run, Nate Scheer 1-3 with a run and an RBI, Johnathan Predmore 2-4, Conor Graven-Briggs 1-4, Kyle Crawford 2-2 with an RBI.
C: 0 0 0 0 0 0 3– 3
O: 0 1 1 1 1 1 0– 5
On Saturday, June 11, The Hellcats saw double header action come their way, when they played a game against LaBoeuf Post 285 at 1 p.m., followed by a game against Corning Gray Post 746 at 4 p.m.
The game against LaBoeuf Post 285 was the highlight of the tournament for The Hellcats as they fought a tough battle to pick up their first win of the season, winning 9-6.
It was once again a late rally in the game, sixth inning, that allowed Chenango to secure their first win. As this time, they had not dug themselves into a hole too big to climb out of.
Heading into the sixth inning, The Hellcats would instead see a one run lead over LaBoeuf Post 285, leading 6-5. However, after allowing one run to come in, tying the game at 6-6, it was Nate Scheer who would get walked with bases loaded to send home the first of three scores. Johnathon Predmore would then step to the plate to send home Joe Devona to tack on the second run.
Chenango would hold on in the seventh to secure the win. This win was in part die to some solid pitching to contact and less errors committed in the field, by Chenango.
Vince Caiati would pitch for four innings tossing two strikeouts, followed by Joe Purdy pitching for three innings and tossing out three strikeouts.
LaBoeuf Post 285 would only record two strikeouts in the game between their two pitchers.
