By SPENCER BATES
ROCHESTER — Over the course of their recent three-game losing streak, the Salamanca Lizards had success in certain areas, but struggled to put all the pieces together.
In their 10-6 loss to the Hornell Steamers, the Lizards connected for 10 hits, but it was their defense — tallying seven errors — that let them down. In their 1-0 defeat at the hands of Dansville, the Lizards’ pitching and defense were much improved, but without any offense — recording just three hits in the affair — one ninth-inning home run from the Gliders was all it took for them to steal a victory.
Offense, defense and pitching, those are the three areas Salamanca coach Jerico Weitzel noted his team needs to have all working in conjunction with one another if they are to succeed.
In the Lizards’ doubleheader against the Rochester Ridgemen, that is exactly what they were able to do, capturing victory in both games by 5-3 and 10-1 scorelines, respectively.
“I think it was a really good character-day for our organization, for our team,” Weitzel said. “We came out really energized, really ready to go. It started on the mound, … we had consistent, very good at-bats the whole way through and even our outs, almost the entire way through, there were very few wasted at-bats. Defensively, I thought we played really well, made a couple spectacular plays and were really solid with the routine stuff.”
Offensively, Salamanca was a force to be reckoned with, tallying a combined 21 hits to Rochester’s 12 on the evening. And those hits were nearly perfectly split between the two games, with 11 coming in the first and 10 in the second.
Four of those 11 hits in the first game, and six of the total 21 on the day, came from first baseman Hunter White. His perfect 4-for-4, two RBI stat line in game one highlighted his team’s first victory of the day as those two RBIs made all the difference. White went 2-for-4 in game two and while not recording any RBIs, represented two of his team’s 10 runs.
“It was a really good day for Hunter,” Weitzel said. “He is someone that has been putting his time in, he’s had good BP, it just felt like his game was a half tick off … and today it all clicked for him, he had a really good day at the plate for us.”
In game one, Harley Hoag (2-for-4, run, RBI) joined White with multiple hits, while Connor Smith (2-for-5, RBI) and Gabe Roth (2-for-3, 2 runs, RBI, walk) joined him in game two.
Defensively, it was an extremely clinical day for the Lizards, having had just one error between the two games. In comparison, the Ridgemen found themselves struggling in the field, recording four errors in each game.
This factored into some of the offense Salamanca was able to generate.
“You always want to take advantage of (those errors), we call them gifts,” Weitzel said. “You get a gift, you get an extra base runner you’re not supposed to have. … It puts pressure on teams. But once you get those gifts, you got to take advantage of them. I thought we did a good job of that.”
Pitching-wise, the Lizards diced through Rochester’s lineup. In game one, Bryce Jackson, working back from an injury, got the start on the mound and wound up going all seven innings, striking out five and walking just one batter in the process. In the second game of the day, Collin Schneider had some early struggles but worked his way through five frames, striking out six and walking four.
“Bryce has been coming back from an injury, so it’s kind of been an inning here, a couple innings there for him,” Weitzel said. “Fortunately for us, his pitch count was really low. … He just really set the tone. … Collin comes in (for the second game), starts and really battled. He made some big pitches when he needed to and got strikeouts with the bases loaded.”
Over their last 10 games, the Lizards have gone 6-3-1, a record that is tied with that of the Genesee Rapids for an NYCBL-best in that span. While still at the bottom of the West Division, Salamanca is just two points behind Hornell and just six points behind the Olean Oilers, who sit in second place in the division.
“Across the board, we’ve elevated our game,” Weitzel said of his team’s growth. “We’ve stuck with our pregame routines, our off-day routines and have just been constantly preaching to treat every day as an opportunity to get better. I think that’s showing with how we’re playing better team-baseball now. Each individual raises their level a little bit and that raises the team level. … We have some excitement within our guys, within the team. I think we’re rolling, hopefully we’re peaking at the right time, we can keep building and make a run at the playoffs.”
The Lizards will return home for their next game, a July 8 affair against the division-leading Rapids. That game is set for a 6:30 p.m. start.
GAME ONE
AT ROCHESTER
Salamanca 102 010 1 R:5 H:11 E:1
Rochester 200 000 1 R:3 H:6 E:4
Sala: Jackson (5 SO, 1 BB) and Lasko
Roch: Wellman (3 SO, 1 BB), Bell (1 SO, 2 BB) and Gouldrup
—
GAME TWO
AT ROCHESTER
Salamanca 040 004 2 R:10 H:10 E:0
Rochester 010 000 0 R:1 H:6 E:4
Sala: Schneider (6 SO, 4 BB), Musone (4 SO, 0 BB) and Cardona
Roch: Rush (4 SO, 6 BB), Yunkunis (3 SO, 4 BB), Ciaramitaro (3 SO, 1 BB) and Wade
