Olean Oilers offense cools off in loss to Jamestown Tarp Skunks

By SPENCER BATES

OLEAN — After a three-game stretch in which the bats of the Olean Oilers were just about unstoppable, the offense ultimately cooled off in an 8-4 loss to the Jamestown Tarp Skunks.

Over the course of their last three games, it seemed as though any time the Oilers connected on a pitch, it went down as a hit. They had removed the term “fly ball” from their lexicon, honing their technique at the plate to yield more line drives and base hits.

Olean did see a decent amount of runners on the basepaths against Jamestown, but were unable to come up with the timely hits that would have swung the result in their favor.

“Between walks and hit batters, we had 14 people left on base,” Oilers head coach Mike Threehouse said. “We also hit four or five line drives right at people. But, I mean, that’s baseball. Sometimes when you hit the ball, it goes right to somebody. That’s kind of what happened today. I think if some of them would have fell, we would have felt better about being in the game. Unfortunately, we never really felt good about being in the game. I think that was a big part of it. So, sometimes the balls fall, sometimes they don’t.”

The Oilers recorded just three hits on the night, those coming from Grant Fournier (1-for-4, 2 runs), Cooper Tarlie (1-for-4, RBI) and Aidan Willard (1-for-4).

But, while the spoils went to the Tarp Skunks, their offense did not produce too much more than their hosts, connecting for just five hits.

Still, they were able to see out the win thanks to a fourth inning in which they scored five runs with two outs on the board.

Those runs went against Olean pitcher Mark Holm, who was one of five arms the Oilers utilized.

According to Threehouse, this was a scheduled bullpen game. With a considerable amount of games in a short timepan fast approaching, Olean gave Chris Laieta his first start of the season and promptly moved through its core of relievers.

“We actually planned on this being a bullpen game,” Threehouse said. “Chris was going to start, we were hoping to ride him for two or three innings, but obviously, that didn’t happen. But we did expect to throw three or four pitchers tonight. We got everybody set to start this week because we have so many games. So, it was the plan, it just didn’t go to plan.”

The only pitcher that went more than 2.0 innings for Olean was Austin Miles, a recent graduate of Olean High School. He went 3.0 frames, striking out two and giving up just one hit. Threehouse noted that he has been spending time with Miles, mostly working on his mentality as he shifts from the high school level, where he knew he could dominate, to the collegiate realm.

“I’ve been talking to Austin, because when he pitched in high school, he knew he was the man. He would walk out there and had all this confidence, with a big chest, and he knew he was gonna win. That’s what he needs to get,” Threehouse said. ”It’s not his pitching stuff, that’s all great, it’s all about him walking out on the hill and knowing he’s going to do well. You saw it today, you saw his presence out there, it was really good today.”

Olean’s Bryson Huwar (40) delivers a pitch against Jamestown. Huwar struck out two batters in 1.1 innings for the Oilers against the Tarp Skunks. (Hunter O. Lyle)

Coming into the game, Jamestown ranked second in all of the Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League (PGCBL) in runs scored (181) and first in stolen bases (100).

The Tarp Skunks have been prone to running up the score and doing so by causing chaos between the bags. But, with Brady Smith keeping the visitors honest from behind home plate, the visitors did not record a single stolen base — something that allowed the Oilers to stay in the game.

“Brady Smith, behind the plate, does a pretty good job throwing out runners,” Threehouse said. “He locks (the bases) down pretty well, which is good to see. They’ve stolen some bases against us in the past, so it was good to lock them down a little bit today. It gave us a shot to stay in the game. All we needed was a big hit here and there, and we just didn’t get it.”

After three games in a row at home, the Oilers will travel north of the border for their next fixture. They will take on the Niagara Ironbacks on July 1 at 1 p.m.

AT OLEAN

Jamestown 110 500 010 R:8 H:5 E:2

Olean 001 100 200 R:4 H:3 E:4

JT: Churchill (1 SO, 3 BB), Santi (1 SO, 2 BB), Harris (0 SO, 4 BB), Price (3 SO, 4 BB) and Fetchik

OL: Laieta (4 SO, 3 BB), Huwar (2 SO, 1 BB), Holm (2 SO, 2 BB), Miles (2 SO, 0 BB), Cowburn (2 SO, 0 BB) and Smith