By SPENCER BATES
SALAMANCA — On a cold, rainy night, the Salamanca baseball team unfortunately found themselves the victim of their own demise in its 14-5 CCAA Div. I loss to Fredonia.
The league defeat is the third in a row for the Warriors, a losing streak broken up by a big non-league win over Cuba-Rushford. But according to coach Greg Herrick, the effort was there against the Hillbillies, the execution, on the other hand, could have been better.
“I thought the level of competition was exactly what I wanted to see,” Herrick said. “I loved Cory (Holleran) going toe-to-toe with their ace (on the mound). … We made two big mistakes early on in the outfield, and that continues to bite us. We have to fix our outfield defense. … I mean, there’s going to be balls hit hard in this league, but a couple of those were up in the air forever, and we just got tangled up. We didn’t take good routes to them. And so that’s going to be a big emphasis. If you can’t defend, you can’t win in this league, so we have to start there.”
And after both sides went scoreless through the first frame, Fredonia was the first to put the scoreboard operator to work with a run in the second. Salamanca had the opportunity to respond right away with two runners in scoring position and just one out. However, inexperience came into play for the hosts as the bottom of the lineup struggled to put together confident at-bats, resulting in stranded runners. A moment in the game, while early, Herrick noted underlined the biggest struggle his team has had this season.
“When I looked at the swings from some of those guys in the bottom of the order, they were a little over matched, so we tried to go to the bunt game,” Herrick said. “We couldn’t get the bunt down so then we tried, with two outs, to steal home and catch them off guard. So, there was a little bit of desperation there, we were trying to do anything we could to lock that game up at one and just give our guys some confidence. That was critical for us to get a run or two across second and third one out, and we just couldn’t do it. So we just got to execute better.”
Salamanca’s Zach Trietley (5) takes a swing at a pitch against Fredonia. (Spencer Bates)
Execution was precisely what wound up costing the Warriors, not just at the plate, but on defense as well. The outfield was a big point of concern for Herrick, who saw far too many balls find the turf after mis-read flights led to drops on should-be outs. And according to him, changes will need to be made moving forward if they are to remain competitive in the league.
“We’ve got some young kids we’re asking to hold down those positions,” Herrick siad. “We thought we had solidified a couple of those (positions), but we don’t have a lot of leadership out there and a lot of experience. So we’re going to make that change. The problem is, sometimes, when you make defensive changes, the ball will find the person that you move. But we do have to make some kind of adjustment. It’s three games now, in the league, that it’s really cost us and allowed the other team to run away from us.”
The Hillbillies stepped on the gas in the latter innings of the affair, scoring nine runs between the fifth and sixth innings, and cruised across the finish line as the deficit was too great for a late comeback by the Warriors.
But it was not all doom-and-gloom for the hosts as they got a solid showing out of their starting pitcher in Holleran. Having typically been used as a reliever due to his intense mindset this season, Holleran got the start on the mound and took the task in stride.
“He’s very flexible, we’ve used him as a starter, used him as a reliever and he’s been equally effective,” Herrick said. “It’s just a mentality for him. He’s kind of like a bulldog. He likes the spotlight, he likes to be on that mound and he likes the responsibility and the pressure that comes with it, which is great, because we need guys like that as we try to build this program with a lot of youth and inexperience.”
For Salamanca, the key will be to have a short memory as it now stares down a stretch of the season in which league games are set to come in quick succession. But, as Herrick mentioned, the difficult part that comes with a packed schedule is getting his players to find the right balance between remembering the things they did right and putting their mistakes firmly in the rearview mirror.
“It’s hard right now to sell the fact that they’re playing pretty good for four or five innings, because the final scores look really bad,” Herrick said. “Anybody that’s not at the game, they’re going to go, ‘it’s another blowout loss,’ but we’ve gone toe-to-toe with two of the best teams in the league that will probably contend for the title, and we’ve been right there and just couldn’t finish. So, finishing is part of it, we have to get that part right. But, I like the way that they’ve competed against some of the better teams. Now we just have to put a complete game together.”
Salamanca will have the chance to return the favor when it hits the road to face Fredonia for its next game on May 5 at 5 p.m.
