Lizards push win streak to four with 7-2 & 9-4 victories
By J.P. BUTLER
Special to the Olean Star
SALAMANCA — For the Salamanca Lizards, after this thrilling Game 2 victory, there was nothing ambiguous about it.
This has become a welcomed trend.
Last Saturday, the Lizards tallied a ninth-inning run to force an eventual 5-5 tie with Hornell. The following day, they rallied from an early 4-0 deficit with a five-run eighth to top Horseheads, 7-5. And on Tuesday, they plated a run in the 10th to edge Olean in extra innings, 5-4.
Salamanca, in its second season as a New York Collegiate Baseball League program, has been defined by its steely demeanor and unmistakable resolve over the last week. That has fueled perhaps its single most successful stretch in that span: Four straight wins and a 4-0-1 mark since June 28.
The initial underscore to that sentiment came Wednesday night.
THE LIZARDS used a four-run sixth – in a seven-inning game – to pull away from Sherrill, 7-2, on a picture-perfect afternoon in Game 1 at Veterans Memorial Park. It then roared back from a 4-1 fifth-inning deficit with eight runs over its next two at-bats to earn a 9-4 triumph and a satisfying doubleheader sweep.
And after going 11-26 in its inaugural campaign and starting 2025 at 4-9-2, Salamanca has become as competitive as any other: It’s now 8-9-2 and six points behind Horseheads for third place in the league’s western division.
“Our kids all year have been fighting really hard whether it’s going good at the beginning of the year, the beginning of a game or not,” said Lizards coach Jerico Weitzel, who founded the Salamanca program last year and doubles as the Jamestown Community College baseball coach. “There’s never any letdown with our mentality; it’s always ‘we’re alright, we’ll chip away, we’ve done it before.’ The kids have done a really good job of continuing to play as the year goes along.”
And Wednesday provided more proof.
TRAILING 4-1 and being one-hit entering the fifth inning of Game 2, Salamanca again came alive.
Frank Kula singled home Parker Drees in a first-and-third and one-out situation to make it 4-2. After a walk, the game’s biggest overall performer, Matt Smith, delivered its biggest hit – a blooped-in, bases-clearing triple to give the Lizards a 5-4 lead. Up 6-4 heading into the sixth, Salamanca added to its advantage in almost reflective fashion: Kula smacked a double to right field to score Drees and Smith rocketed a two-run double off the wall to make it a five-run contest.
In the seventh, Alex Rumfola struck out the side to slam the door on the visiting Silversmiths. And in that moment, nearly five-straight victories later, the question for Salamanca was this:
What’s changed over the last week?
“It’s just, the kids keep working hard,” Weitzel said. “It’s just kind of trusting what we’re doing. We think we’re doing the right thing. If it starts to go south a little bit, don’t panic and change everything, just trust what you’re doing.
“Our kids do things the right way, they play hard, they put the time in, now the rewards start happening. So I think it’s just (back to) finding that level of, where it was going for a little bit, it’s gonna come back up. We gotta keep working, but I think it’s just a testament to the kids just continuing to do things right and playing hard everyday.”
In Game 1, Harley Hoag, a Salamanca Central School product, went 2-for-4 with a double and three RBI and Kula finished 2-for-3 with an RBI and two runs scored to key Salamanca. In that decisive sixth inning, up 3-2, the Lizards received RBI singles from Kula, Hunter White (2 hits) and Gabe Roth (2 hits) and an RBI double from Hoag to bring a five-run cushion into the seventh.
DESPITE ITS sub-.500 record, Salamanca entered Wednesday near the top of the league in most NYCBL pitching and defensive statistics.
And they were strong in those areas against Sherrill.
In the opener, Dylan Kinney tossed a gem, allowing just two runs on five hits while striking out four (2 walks) in a complete-game effort. The Lizards committed two errors across 14 innings, though neither were costly.
And though Salamanca had struggled through June offensively, they’re starting to come around. On Wednesday, it posted 17 hits, including 11 in its Game 1 triumph. It’s tallied at least seven runs in three of its last four games.
“It’s kind of hard to always see, but I thought we were having good at-bats earlier in the year,” said Weitzel, whose squad improved to 7-2-2 at home. “We were hitting the ball hard, we just weren’t catching any breaks, we weren’t getting balls to fall in. It was one of those things where we were having bad luck, and sometimes you think maybe I’m just saying that because I’m biased, but no. I think that’s part of it where we’re continuing to do what we were doing, it’s just now we’re getting some breaks.
Additionally, he added: “I think our kids (have gotten) better. We have a small roster so our kids play a lot. So it’s kind of easier to get in a rhythm as the season goes on.”
In Game 2, Smith finished 2-for-4 with five RBI while Kula was 2-for-3 with two RBI and three runs scored. In the end, Salamanca displayed more resiliency by not settling for a doubleheader split.
“I thought that was really good because it’s hard to win two games in a row,” Weitzel said. “A lot of times you get a win and the intensity comes down a little bit, the focus, and maybe you saw that a little bit at the beginning of Game 2.
“But Matt’s been clutch for us all year. Sometimes it’s been a home run or a smoked ball, today it was opposite field; he kind of blooped one in. But when you have a good approach, good at-bats, he works really hard, so it was nice to see that rewarded.”
As a program, Salamanca seems to have turned a corner. Their reward for this stretch is a heap of momentum heading into the second half of the season.
“We’re always preaching that if each individual kid gets better then eventually the wins start stacking up,” said Weitzel, whose Lizards will meet Genesee on Thursday. “So I think it’s more just that … the kids keep getting better and better and the winning will start taking care of itself.”
AT SALAMANCA
GAME ONE
Sherrill 200 000 0 R:2 H:5 E:0
Salamanca 210 004 0 R:7 H:11 E:1
Sher: Shield (7 SO, 2 BB), Liss (1 SO, 1 BB) and Martyn
Sala: Kinney (4 SO, 2 BB) and Lasko
—
AT SALAMANCA
GAME TWO
Sherrill 101 200 0 R:4 H:7 E:0
Salamanca 100 053 0 R:9 H:6 E:1
Sher: Aggarwal (5 SO, 6 BB), Phillips (4 SO, 2 BB) and Angilly
Sala: Stranko (3 SO, 4 BB), Rumfola (3 SO, 2 BB) and Lasko, Cardona
