By HUNTER O. LYLE
GOWANDA, NY – Facing off for the third time this year, Portville and Gowanda’s final meeting would determine who would get a shot at a Section VI Class C championship. Despite coming into the semifinals with a head full of steam, Portville inevitably could not get over the hump, losing 8-1 as their season wrapped up in hostile territory.
Through two regular season meetings, Gowanda held a clear advantage. Beating Portville in their season opener 9-0 on Monday, March 30, Gowanda then swept the season series 10 days later with a 10-3 win on Portville’s home turf. Although Portville had since embarked on a late-season hot streak, Gowanda hadn’t slowed down a beat.
Coming into the playoffs, the second-seeded Panthers squad held a record of 18-3, winning 14 of their last 15 games by an average score of 14.3-0.93. Entering the playoffs against Chautauqua Lake, Gowanda wasted no time dispatching their quarterfinal opponents, beating the Eagles 11-1 in five innings.
“We knew what Gowanda was, we knew we could hang with them,” said Portville head coach Joe Pleakis. “We also knew we were a different team than when we played them at the start of the year. We felt like if we played our game, we’d give ourselves a chance.”
Despite the David-versus-Goliath disparity, Portville held their own in the early goings with tough defense, earning back-to-back Gowanda three-and-outs through the first two frames. However, their own bats were only marginally more productive – Portville notched two singles in the first three frames, first from Dylan Chudy followed by another in the third from Aidan DeFazio.
Dylan Chudy slides back to first after narrowly surviving an attempted tag out. | Photo by Hunter O. Lyle
Then, Portville’s defense would stumble, which Gowanda would capitalize on. In the bottom of the third, Portville got the first out with a lead-off play at first but immediately after, would give Gowanda real estate on all three bases with a single and two walks. With the bases loaded, Gowanda’s Kyan Austin cracked a ground ball to Portville’s shortstop. An errant throw to home then went wild, allowing two baserunners to round home plate. To make matters worse, Gowanda would add one more score before the end of the frame with a sac-grounder that put them up 3-0.
“It wasn’t our sharpest game and the boys know that,” said Pleakis. “(Gowanda) played better than we did today.”
Still within reach, Portville wouldn’t have to wait long to retaliate. In the top of the fourth, Ty Kosinski smashed a long shot into the corner of right field as he made his way to second. A single from Cole Keesler moved him to third before Izayah Edmund then drove him across home plate with Portville’s third consecutive hit, this one coming as an RBI-single. However, consecutive strikeouts would dash their momentum before it had fully manifested.
Portville’s Cole Keesler finds contact at the plate during the Panthers’ 8-1 loss to Gowanda on Thursday. | Photo by Hunter O. Lyle
Although Portville managed to subdue Gowanda for one more frame, their bats failed to find the same production, instead seeing three batters step up before immediately returning to the dugout. Stepping into the batter’s box in the fifth, Gowanda would put the game out of reach for good.
Loading the bases up again in their first three batters, a single into the outfield would add two more runs to their lead. Retiring Portville in three once again, Gowanda put a man on first before Blake Herman crushed a wall-hitting RBI-triple. Keeping their foot on the pedal, a squeeze play would score Gowanda’s seventh run before a single and mishandling in the infield from Portville would let in run No. 8. In what seemed like a flash, Portville had quickly fallen out of contention.
Despite once again finding three consecutive hits in the top of the seventh, all of them being singles from Brady Carter, Chase Armstrong and Peyton Carter, the miracle that Portville needed failed to materialize. Instead, they ultimately faced a third loss to Gowanda and the end of their season.
Six Panthers ended with hits during their final game of the season. Kosinski, Keesler, Edmund, Chudy and Armstrong all finished 1-for-3 while DeFazio, along with his six strikeouts through seven innings, ended 1-for-4.
“We talked about after the game that, season-wise, this game doesn’t define us. We had a really rough start. It’s not by any means what we had hoped for but during the second half we played really well,” said Pleakis, whose team won seven of their last nine regular season games. “I’m really impressed. To me, that’s something that’s really hard to do. Credit to our senior leadership. We stuck with it and kept putting in the word and turned things around. They gave us a shot to make the finals. I couldn’t ask for anything more.”
AT GOWANDA
R H E
Portville 000 100 0 1 7 3
Gowanda 003 023 X 8 6 0
PV: DeFazio (6 SO, 4 BB) and ChudyGW: Capozzi (8 SO, 0 BB), Herman (6) (0 SO, 0 BB), Lauer (7) (0 SO, 0 BB) and Fish
