After walk-off win over Randolph, A-L downs PCS in 9
By J.P. BUTLER — Special to the Olean Star
ALLEGANY — Eric Hemphill turned to his dugout and beckoned one of his seniors to calm the next batter, eighth-grader Bronx Foster.
“Make sure he knows the signs,” the Allegany-Limestone baseball coach demanded of his veteran.
Amid their second-straight unbelievable outing, the Gators were trailing 6-5 in the ninth inning with the bases loaded and one out. Their fate had now come down to Foster, who’d never before faced this situation at the varsity level.
The eighth-grader not only understood the sign, he executed the call splendidly.
Foster dropped down “a perfect squeeze bunt” to bring home the tying run from third base. One batter later, Vin LaBella hit a sharp ground ball to third that allowed the winning run to score on a play at the plate. And for the second time in as many nights, the Gators secured a walk-off win on their home turf, downing Portville, 7-6, for the A-L Tournament crown on a rainy Saturday afternoon.
ON FRIDAY night, A-L (2-1) fell into a 10-0 hole through two innings before, remarkably, marching all the way back for a 12-11 first-round victory over Randolph. Roughly 18 hours later, it was the Gators who held early control: Hemphill’s team went up 5-1 with a four-run fourth before the Panthers rallied with a four-run fifth and eventually took the lead with a run in the top of the ninth inning.
Both contests, however, ended the same way: With the young Gators — aside from four seniors, they’re comprised entirely of eighth-, ninth- and 10th-graders — celebrating a wild walk-off win.
“That’s a huge situation for an eighth-grader to be in in a varsity game,” Hemphill said afterward of Foster. “He came up and I gave him the sign, my runner on third was aware and he dropped down a perfect squeeze bunt to tie it.
Added Hemphill of the game-winning play that followed: “I thought their third baseman (Ty Kosinski) made a heck of a play to even give them a chance to get the out. It was a bang-bang play at the plate. But we beat it out and walked it off two nights in a row.”
Allegany-Limestone’s Khyree Harmon (11) delivers a pitch.
BEFORE THE late-game heroics, Khyree Harmon had done his part to give the Gators a chance. One of Hemphill’s four seniors, the 6-foot-1 right-hander produced a solid start, striking out seven while walking five over four-plus innings, and also racked up four hits and drove in three runs. Caleb Strade, in nearly five relief frames, also fanned seven as he and Harmon combined for 14 strikeouts and six hits allowed over nine innings.
“My two senior pitchers I thought threw pretty well other than we gotta limit the free bases that we give to people,” said Hemphill, whose Gators issued 10 total walks.
Additionally, A-L outhit Portville, 11-6, with Isaiah Fisher also notching four hits and LaBella finishing with a hit, three and two runs scored. For the Gators, though, this game, like the Randolph triumph, was won as much by their resolve and resiliency as anything else.
What could consecutive comeback victories against quality competition do for Hemphill’s group going forward?
“In our huddles both Friday and Saturday night, I talked about that,” said Hemphill, whose Gators emerged victorious in the first A-L vs. Portville baseball battle since 2022. “Our senior pitcher on Friday night just really didn’t have his stuff, and I had a 10th-grader and an eighth-grader come in and pitch behind him and they basically kept a 10-run lead at 10 so that we could chip away at it. And then Saturday, I have an eighth-grader put down a squeeze bunt.
“So they’re coming through in situations that they probably weren’t ready for, but I’m hoping that this prepares them for the gauntlet of our league because (with) Fredonia, Dunkirk, Southwestern and Olean, there’s no easy games in the league. They’re going to see some teams and hopefully this is preparing them for that.”
AIDAN DEFAZIO doubled while Cole Keesler had a hit and two runs scored for the Panthers (1-2). On Thursday, Portville survived a Bradford rally and scored late to produce its own thrilling 7-6 victory. In the championship contest, which was moved from 2:30 to 12:30 p.m. due to the weather forecast, it again positioned itself for a win, but this time couldn’t quite coax the same outcome.
“We had to scramble to get the boys around; we didn’t know of the schedule change until Saturday morning,” first-year Portville coach Joe Pleakis said. “Obviously, (it was) a tough loss for us, but I’m proud of the way our guys battled.”
Still tied 1-1, Portville logged what would have been the third out of the fourth inning, but a dropped third strike kept the frame alive and A-L responded by scoring four two-out runs. Despite the “gut punch,” the Panthers came back to knot it again the following inning.
Throughout, however, Portville continued to be undone, in part, by that tough luck.
“In the third inning, Cole leads off, gets on and steals second,” Pleakis noted. “Faz hits a line drive right at second and Cole gets doubled up. If that ball was six inches the other way, we score a run with no outs; instead it’s two down.
“But that’s how baseball works. Especially when you play nine innings, you’re not going to get every bounce in your favor. We’re going to take some things away from this game and grow from it, but I’m happy with the way the guys battled all nine innings. Credit to A-L, they hung in there too.”
Said Hemphill: “We’re learning on the fly, so two walk-off wins in two days is pretty big for us.”
Portville 010 040 001 — 6 6 5
Allegany-Lime. 100 400 002 — 7 11 3
Ty Kosinski (5 SO, 3 BB), Aidan DeFazio (6) (3 SO, 3 BB) and Dylan Chudy
Khyree Harmon (7 SO, 5 BB), Caleb Strade (5) (7 SO, 3 BB) and Braeden Cowburn
