The Cyclones and Warriors split a double-header on Sunday at Watervliet High School; the Warriors took game one 8-5 and the Cyclones earned the split with a 19-9 win in game two. Both games were defined by big innings.
In game one, the Warriors took a quick 1-0 lead in the first on an RBI double by Alex Dell. The Cyclones battled back with two runs in the top of the 4th capped off with an RBI single by Don Shultis; the Cyclones carried the 2-1 lead into the bottom of the fifth which is when the Warriors bats awoke.
Lee Davison tied the game with a one-out, RBI single. Davison advanced on a wild pitch and then to third on an infield hit (swinging bunt style) by Bill Sims. Gene Cox followed with a third straight single scoring Davison and Don Canestrari kept the train rolling with another single over the pulled in infield, plating Cox and the Warriors led 4-2. John Barber followed with a sharp single to left and loaded the bases for Mike LaBarge who delivered a sacrifice fly to CF and the Warriors led 5-2. Up stepped Warren Zeiser who hit a missle to rightcenter field splitting the defense and the ball rolled all the way to the wall. earning a triple. The bomb scored 2 more and the rout was now on at 7-2. Alex Dell delivered again finishing the scoring with a single to left scoring Zeiser and the Warriors finished the 5th leading 8-2.
The Cyclones managed to put together a run in the sixth and two in the seventh but fell short of a comeback and lost 8-5.
Game one featured no walks and no errors between the two teams. Game two . . . did not have the same feature.
Each team exchanged runs in the first inning and went to the third inning tied at 1-1. And then the wheels came off... The Warriors scored five runs before an out was made on a walk to Barber, a walk to LaBarge, a Zeiser single, a Brian Kent double, a Stefan Koustakis single, a Terry McCarty single and a walk by Lee Davison. After the disastrous inning was over the Warriors led 8-1 and started making dinner plans.
The Cyclones, however, mounted an unbelievable comeback just a short half-inning later - all with two outs. The first two Cyclones hitters grounded out to begin the bottom of the third inning but the Warriors could not get that third out.
Sherwin so started the two out rally with a single and Dave Hartman hit a booming double to rightcenter field scoring So. Rich Robertson followed with a single to center and John Coulombe hit a sharp grounder that was misplayed, reaching on an error scoring Hartman, 8-3 Cyclones. The Cyclones followed with a walk to Jeremy Jarvis, a single by Scott Travis, Don Shultis reached on another error, walks to Sean Meca, Gibby Travis and Bill Farrell which then forced the Warriors to switch pitchers. Jim Denney greeted the new guy with a frozen rope to leftcenter field driving home three runs. Cos DiBari finished the inning with a single to center scoring Denney and the Cyclones scored 11 runs in all - with two outs - to take a 12-8 lead.
The Cyclones scored 4 in the fourth and 3 in the fifth to walk it off by a score of 19-9.
Game one's big numbers include:
Warren Zeiser (Warriors) - 2-for-3, 2 3B, 2 RBI, 2 R Alex Dell (Warriors) - 2-for-2, 2B, 2 RBI, HBP Bill Sims (Warriors) - 2-for-3, R, SB Rich Robertson (Cyclones) - 2-for-3, 2 R John Coulombe (Cyclones) - 2-for-3, 3B, R, RBI Jeremy Jarvis (Cyclones) - 3-for-3, R Don Shultis (Cyclones) - 2-for-3, 2 RBI
Game two had a lot of crooked number:
Alex Dell (Warriors) - 2-for-3, R Brian Kent (Warriors) - 1-for-1, 2B, 2 R, 2 SB, 2 BB, 3 RBI Sherwin So (Cyclones) - 3-for-4, 3 R, 1 RBI, 3 SB Dave Hartman (Cyclones) - 2-for-2, 2B, 3 R, BB, RBI, 2 SB, HBP Rich Robertson (Cyclones) - 2-for-3, 2 R, BB, 2 SB John Coulombe (Cyclones) - 1-for-3, 2 RBI, SB, HBP Scott Travis (Cyclones) - 3-for-4, 2 R, 2 RBI
Bill Farrell scored two runs and Jim Denney netted 2 RBI in the game as well.
Not much to post in the recap about pitching as the bats were working for both teams. The defense was very crisp by both teams in game one, while each team committed three errors in game two.
Gene's Warriors follow up their late game this week with a late game next week as they have a date with the Marlins at 5:30 p.m. at New Scotland. The Cyclones get the Royal Brewers and travel to Chatham where the Brewers seem to get to play all of their games.....
Good luck to Gene and his Warriors the rest of the way - I have a feeling we will meet again on the diamond!
