By SPENCER BATES
HAMBURG — Five outs was all that separated the Olean baseball team and a possible end to its historic season.
In the Section 6 Class A2 Final, the No. 3 seed Huskies stared down a two-run deficit in the bottom of the sixth inning. A pair of three-run innings from No. 4 seed Lewiston-Porter had given it the lead, negating the work Olean had done, scoring a run apiece in each of the first four innings.
But five outs was more than enough for the Huskies to pull off the comeback as they grabbed their first Section 6 title in nearly a decade by a 7-6 scoreline.
Sparking the comeback was Caine DeGolier (2-for-4, run, 4 RBI), who did much of the heavy lifting himself, blasting a two-run home run over the left field wall that tied the game at 6-6.
“I think I might have yelled ‘see ya’ before it got by me,” Olean head coach Les DeGolier joked. “It was a no-doubter, right? Everybody saw that. He just crushed that. He was ready and he didn’t miss. He’s seeing it like a beach ball, and boy he’s got a lot of confidence, and that’s everything when they’re at the plate.”
Granted, it was (statistically speaking) not a surprise that Caine DeGolier was the one to come up with the big play. Since Olean’s playoff run began, he is a combined 4-for-11 (.363 batting average) with five runs and six RBI.
But even more impressively, since the start of May (11 games), he is a combined 22-for-36 (.611 batting average) with 20 runs and 20 RBI.
“We’ve been taking a lot of swings at home and it’s really paid off for us,” Caine DeGolier said. “It’s what you got to do. The more you practice, the better chance you have at getting that hit.”
Olean’s Landon Johnson (2) delivers a pitch against Lew-Port. Johnson started the game and tallied three strikeouts for the Huskies. (Spencer Bates)
Relief pitcher Austin Miles (10 Ks, 2 walks) did his job and made quick work of the Lancers in the top of the seventh, handing the baton back to his offense that smelled blood in the water.
The Huskies’ dugout was as loud as ever, with barks booming from dawgs that have been chasing glory for their entire high school careers. Their shot at the mountaintop was right in front of them and each player in an Olean uniform was eager to see the job finished, no matter who was to get handed the task.
“We’ve all been friends for quite a long time now, since we’ve been on varsity, which is like four years, five years now,” Caine DeGolier said. “It’s really brought us all together and there’s really good friendship throughout our team.”
Landon Johnson (1-for-4, run) took advantage of the palpable momentum shift and led off the bottom of the seventh with a single. Gehrig Perry (run, 2 walks) then did well to work a five-pitch walk and turn over the lineup card.
The game looked to be in the hands of Miles (3-for-4, run, RBI), the team captain whose two-way capabilities have made him a danger all season long. But knowing this, Lew-Port was not going to give him the chance at glory — opting to load the bases with an intentional walk.
That decision put the fate of the Huskies into the hands of Ethan Woodring (run, RBI, walk) — a player with a knack for drama.
“I challenged the top four guys in our lineup today,” Les DeGolier said. “I said to them, ‘In championship teams, the top of the lineup has to have a day. They can’t be silent. For me, it didn’t matter, one through four, it didn’t matter who was gonna be up. They were gonna win the ball game. It just so happened to be Ethan Woodring, who had a walk-off to share the league title two years ago, he had a walk-off hit last year. So I was like, ‘Alright if you want to put Mr. Walk-Off up there, that’s fine with me.’”
Woodring made good on his nickname and proceeded to lace a ball at the Lancers first baseman, who was only able to pick up the out at first before Johnson crossed home plate as the game-winning run.
Olean’s Ethan Woodring (3) gets set in the batter’s box. Woodring scored a run and picked up the walk-off RBI for the Huskies in their win over Lew-Port. (Spencer Bates)
Les DeGolier noted that the win embodied the years of trials and tribulations that this squad had gone through. The hard work and the heartbreak all ultimately culminated in the perpetual down-but-never-out attitude of the Huskies.
“First, the team mentality. We had to (come back) in Maryvale two days ago. So we’ve been there, done that,” Les DeGolier said. “Nobody in the dugout didn’t think we could do it. Everybody was positive between innings. The second thing, really, was Austin. You want to talk about resilient, he got out of the first (inning he pitched) pretty clean, but the next two innings were tough for him. Then to have two clean innings in six and seven to finish it up, that was resilient. Especially since he’s pitched 140 pitches in the last four days, five days. That’s resilience and that’s why he’s our captain.”
As one of the seniors on the team, Caine DeGolier noted that while his high school years have been filled with sporting memories, getting the long-sought-after Section title in baseball is the cherry on top.
“This moment means a lot to me, because I’ve played a lot of sports in my high school career, and this is the last one, so it means a lot to get a section title,” Caine DeGolier said.
For Les DeGolier, while he knew what the view from top of the mountain looked like, this time the sight was that much sweeter, considering he knows just as well how much effort was needed to get the team to this point.
“I stepped into a winning program nine years ago,” Les DeGolier said. “I feel like I can own this one. These guys, I’ve been coaching for four years, and we’ve been working and working, and teaching and teaching, and they’ve been working hard. They deserve every bit of it. They answer the challenge when I challenge them. They’re very coachable, they’re hard workers and they believe in each other. All those things put together is a heck of a combination.”
Next up for Olean is a matchup with Grand Island — who, as the No. 1 seed, won the Section 6 Class A1 title — in the Section 6 Class A Crossover on May 30 at 1 p.m. at Frontier High School.
AT HAMBURG
Lew-Port 030 300 0 R:6 H:11 E:1
Olean 111 102 1 R:7 H:11 E:1
L-P: Lauger (1 SO, 1 BB), Calandrelli (3 SO, 5 BB) and Anderson
OL: Johnson (3 SO, 2 BB), Miles (10 SO, 2 BB) and DeGolier
