By HUNTER O. LYLE
HORSEHEADS, NY – After picking up their first two wins of the season with a double-header sweep on Wednesday, the Olean Oilers kept their momentum rolling with a 6-2 win over the Horseheads Hitmen.
Coming into the game, the Oilers were riding high off two high-tension walk-off wins over Syracuse where both the offense and defense found key moments to produce. The Hitmen, on the other hand, were in the midst of a downward slope, losing three straight contests after their initial win of the season, including a 16-1 blowout against the Hornell Steamers on Thursday.
Through the first five frames, neither team could find a significant path onto the diamond with each registering just a handful of hits. However, in the sixth, Olean finally broke the game wide open.
Leading off was Thomas Bates and Noah Gerrick who both nabbed singles to start the inning. Cole Fischer then stepped up, popping a shot into right field and although it was inevitably caught, gave Bates enough time to score the opening run of the game. Brian Fleming also sacrificed his at-bat for the Oilers, grounding out to bring in their second run. Back-to-back walks would put two more men on base before they both stole their way to scoring position. Looking to add to the Oiler surge, Brodie Collins singled to left field, bringing in Dustin Hendrix and Bryce Neely.
“I think today our guys’ plans were really good. We attacked good pitches. We got a little eager early in the game with what we were seeing where we were taking some bad swings,” said Olean Oilers co-manager Jackson DeJohn, “but the at-bats were really good and later in the game we started to see guys settle in and calm down a little bit. They weren’t trying to do too much and just put good swings on the ball. It was kind of just no one person doing anything. It was just everybody one through nine putting good ABs together.”
Although the Hitmen found their own success, Olean capped their retaliation at just two runs. Then, the Oilers would keep their bats warm with a double from Josh Wilson at the start of the seventh. Bates moved him to third with a sac-grounder before Gerrick nailed his second single of the night and first RBI.
Despite allowing a few Hitmen on the baseline over the final few frames, Olean’s defense would carry the Oilers home. In the ninth, they would seal their third win of the season with one more run, this time coming from an Bryce Neely RBI double that drove in Fleming.
The Oilers tallied their most hits of the season so far in the win, registering 10 with Gerrick (2-for-5) and Neely (2-for-4) coming away with a pair each and combining for two runs and two more RBIs. On the mound, Kiayuan Baskerville started for Olean, fanning five batters through 5.1 innings.
The Oilers will return home for Saturday’s game against the Genesee Rapids – a 4 p.m. start – before taking back to the road for a Sunday matinee against the Dansville Gliders at 5 p.m.
“We feel like we have a really good offense. We have a lot of good swings on the team and just good hitters. The ball wasn’t falling in the first few games so it was nice today to see the ball rolling a little bit,” said DeJohn. “I think that’s just going to keep going with the team. I think that’s just going to get better and better as we see the confidence get raised a little bit. I just think it’s a group that’s slowly improving. It’s a really fun offense that we have.”
AT HORSEHEADS
R H E
Olean 000 004 101 6 10 0
Horsehead 000 002 000 2 8 0
OL: Baskerville (5 SO, 2 BB), Arreola (6) (3 SO, 0 BB), Smith (9) (0 SO, 0 BB) and Collins
HH: Larkin (0 SO, 1 BB), Knoll (6) (3 SO, 3 BB) and Lee
