By SPENCER BATES
OLEAN — Prior to his last at-bat of the game, Olean’s Caine DeGolier was called over for a quick meeting with head coach Les DeGolier.
With the two batters preceding him reaching base and his team tied up at 4-4 with Southwestern in the bottom of the seventh inning, the baton was passed to him. All that was needed for a walk-off victory was a base hit.
Falling behind in the count 0-2, Caine DeGolier swung away and sent a hanging curveball into the opposite field, which scored Dom Myers, solidifying a 5-4 win.
“I told (Caine), ‘you know what you’re gonna see; spin,’” Les DeGolier said. “It’s not his favorite pitch to swing at, but when you know it’s coming, it’s different. ‘You practiced this Caine, you can do this. You’re gonna see three of them. Make sure you just time one of them up.’ Hitting it to right-center field is exactly how you teach a kid to hit a curve. Instead of smoking it on the top, pounding it into the ground and grounding out, you stay right through it. Textbook.”
The Huskies, squaring off against the Trojans for the second time in as many days, had done everything right through six innings of work, starting on the mound.
Austin Miles, in his second start since his return from injury, put together yet another superb stat line. Striking out nine batters and conceding just four hits, he put his team in the driver’s seat.
The Olean offense fed off the momentum Miles had provided and jumped out to a 4-1 lead after three innings. However, its lead did not come unearned.
Southwestern’s starting pitcher, Lucas Genareo, had some serious speed behind his deliveries, which forced the Huskies to adjust. They withheld from chasing pitches outside the zone and let the Trojans put themselves behind the 8-ball.
But even when the hosts were on base, they were not done causing chaos. Critically, two of Olean’s runs on the day came as a result of smart, opportunistic base-running.
“We took a little something from last night, and put some pressure on them,” Les DeGolier said of his team’s strategy. ”We thought that we could make some things happen by pushing it on the basepaths, and that seemed to work.”
Olean’s Dom Myers swings at a pitch against Southwestern. Myers went 3-for-4 with two runs for the Huskies in their win over the Trojans. (Spencer Bates)
In the latter innings of his outing, Miles conceded a few bases to the Trojans and a four-pitch walk that put a runner in scoring position in the fifth frame brought Les DeGolier out of the dugout for a chat. Notably, he left Miles in, showing he had trust in his man on the mound, and in response Miles struck out the last batter of the inning and got through the sixth unscathed as well.
“It’s composure and it’s belief,” Les DeGolier said. “Believing in themselves, individually, and believing in their teammates. This is a strong team, and they see each other make plays, they know that everybody can do it, that everybody can contribute. That carries over and gives them some confidence.”
Olean’s win was put in jeopardy as Southwestern scored two runs off relief pitcher Gehrig Perry to tie the game in the seventh. Les DeGolier stuck with Perry for as long as possible, but eventually made a change, putting Landon Johnson on the mound.
Johnson was tasked with preventing any more damage, a daunting task with just one out on the board and the bases loaded.
Johnson, just like Miles and Caine DeGolier, put on display the mental fortitude and resilience that radiates from this Olean team, retiring the Trojans with back-to-back strikeouts.
“It was a complete team game,” Les DeGolier said. “We talked before the game about having each other’s backs. We did have a couple of miscues, which is sort of uncharacteristic of us. … (Gehrig) got in a jam at the end there, but Landon came in and shut them down and gave us a chance to win the game. Those types of things, that’s why this team is strong, and that’s why this team is special.”
With the win, Olean moved to 4-1 on the season. It will travel to face Fredonia for its next game, on April 24 at 5 p.m.
AT OLEAN
Southwestern 100 100 2 R:4 H:5 E:5
Olean 112 000 1 R:5 H:10 E:2
SW: L. Genareo (5 SO, 2 BB), W. Genareo (4 SO, 1 BB), Watkins (0 SO, 0 BB) and Stump
OL: Miles (9 SO, 3 BB), Perry (0 SO, 3 BB), Johnson (2 SO, 0 BB) and DeGolier
