By SPENCER BATES
HORNELL — After rescuing ties in their first two meetings of the season with the Hornell Steamers, the Salamanca Lizards were unable to come up with the late dramatics necessary to rescue a point in round three.
Three runs in the bottom of the ninth in their June 15 matchup and one run in the final frame of regulation on June 28 saved Salamanca from two tallies in the loss column. Their late efforts in those games ultimately secured potentially impactful points in a packed NYCBL West Division table. And as the sides sat at 6-6 going into the bottom of the fifth inning on July 4, the potential for yet another tie was there, but so comes with the parity Lizards coach Jerico Weitzel sees in the league this year.
“We’re two pretty evenly matched teams and we’re going to have that as the year goes on,” Weitzel said. “It seems like there’s a lot of parity in our division this year. I don’t think there’s a ton of separation. Some teams can make less mistakes and those are the teams that are leading the division. But I think we’re pretty similar to (Hornell) as far as lineup-to-lineup, pitching staff-to-pitching staff. We just didn’t take care of the baseball today, and it ended up costing us.”
Salamanca had got their Independence Day matchup off on the right foot, scoring a run in each of the first three innings, keeping its nose ahead of its hosts who scored once in the first and added another in the third. However, its hot start was ultimately flipped on its head after failing to score in the fourth and then conceding four runs in the bottom of the inning.
Now playing from behind, the Lizards were able to find a big, offensive frame of their own in the top of the fifth, scoring three runs and knotting the affair right back up.
And after giving up the four runs in the previous inning, Salamanca made the decision to pull starter Sawyer Prince (0 SO, 3 BB) and replace him with Alex Rumfola.
Unfortunately for the visitors, the change in arm did not come with improved results immediately as Hornell jumped on Rumfola (3 SO, 0 BB), scoring four more runs to jump ahead 10-6.
The eight runs they had allowed over two innings truly derailed the Lizards. But, according to Weitzel, the statistical result his team got on the mound was not fully indicative of how well his pitchers performed, and have been performing as of late. Especially considering that prior to this affair, his side had not allowed its opponents to score more than five runs in a game since June 25, a span of eight days in which it had gone 4-1-1.
“(The result) was a lot more on the defense and just some bloop hits that fell into the soft spots,” Weitzel said. “(Our pitchers) threw a lot better than giving up 11 runs. I’ve been very pleased. I try to space our guys out where they’re only starting once a week. … I think a part of helping your guys get good is keeping them fresh, so they’re able to perform at their best level, instead of trying to run guys up there all the time and wearing them down. I’ve been very happy with how we’ve thrown the ball.”
The game saw 10 errors combined between the sides, seven of which belonged to Salamanca, and three of which came in that first four-run inning for Hornell. This, Weitzel noted, is what had the largest impact on the game.
“Some of (the errors) were just mental lapses that led to mistakes,” Weitzel said. “But some mistakes don’t always show up as errors. They had a couple balls that went down as hits, because they didn’t get touched, but plays should have been made. … I talked to the boys after the game about how good teams are able to flush this and move on and not do it again tomorrow. Bad teams get into a funk and they play bad again for two, three, four days in a row. Obviously it wasn’t our best day, but let’s try to flush it, let’s try to move on and get ready for tomorrow. We don’t want this to linger into the weekend.”
The big frames from Hornell stunted the flow Salamanca’s offense had been operating with. Having recorded at least one hit in each inning until the eighth, getting connections at the plate was not a problem. Unfortunately, as Weitzel pointed out, just getting hits is not enough to win games.
“You can’t just do one or two things well, you have to have all three phases of the game,” Weitzel said. “A few times we’ve had two out of the three, and not all three. … Good teams are going to take advantage of it when we’re not doing all three things together.”
Hornell did, in fact, manage to record at least a hit in all of the innings they stepped up to the plate, scoring an insurance run in the bottom of the seventh and threatening again in the eighth with two more baserunners.
Without a response, Salamanca dropped its second game in as many days after previously having gone unbeaten in five. But a plethora of opportunities to right the ship once again lie ahead of the Lizards who will suit up next on July 5 at home as they prepare to take on the Dansville Gliders. That game is set to begin at 6:30 p.m.
AT HORNELL
Salamanca 111 030 000 R:6 H:10 E:7
Hornell 101 440 10X R:11 H:17 E:3
Sala: Prince (0 SO, 3 BB), Rumfola (3 SO, 0 BB) and Lasko
Horn: Ecker (7 SO, 2 BB), Feng (3 SO, 0 BB) and Ellis
