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IAC BASEBALL: NEWARK VALLEY RALLIES PAST SVEC, 7-5 (2021-06-04)

BY TIM TAYLOR
Tioga County Sports Report
SPENCER — Sam Durand's three-run home run highlighted a six-run uprising as Newark Valley came from behind to post a 7-5 victory over SVEC at Nichols Park here Friday.

"It was huge," NV coach Tim Pisarczyk said. "We were leaving a lot of guys on base early in the game and we had a little talk about that, actually right when we rallied, and they stepped up and they did it."

"That's been the story of our season," SVEC coach Cliff Pierce said. "We've had a lot of games where we were up through four innings and then kind of had that inning."

With the host Eagles holding a 4-1 lead, NV put together its rally in the top of the sixth inning with Joey Sherwood and Austin Weeks ripping sharp singles through the left side of the infield, and Jake Armstrong getting hit by a pitch to load the bases.

Dylan Scales followed with an RBI single inside the left field line, a ground out by Luke Rinkavage plated another run, then Mikey Wandell knotted the score when his ball deep to the six hole pushed an other run across.

That's when Durand stepped to the dish and smacked an 0-2 pitch into the trees beyond left center field.

The offensive surge was the result of a solid team effort up and down the line-up.

"They're a good hitting team all the way through and they proved it today," Pisarczyk said.

NV reliever Joey Woodmansee shut down the Eagles in the sixth, but walked Logan Jewell, Seth McBride and Jayden Grube among the first four batters. With one down, Jewell scored on a ball hit between third and short, but a diving stop by Rinkavage averted the potential for additional runs — and he was able to get back to his feet to throw the batter out at first. Second baseman Scales then nestled under a shallow pop fly to end the game.

SVEC was nothing if not resourceful, scoring five runs despite getting just one hit on the day.

"We persevered," Pierce said. "We didn't hit the ball really well, but we made things happen on the base path. We walked, and we stole bases when we needed to, and a couple passed balls helped us keep it close. We did some really good base running."

After the Eagles stranded Scales and Rinkavage in scoring position in the first, Jewell walked to lead off the SVEC half of the inning and used heads-up base running to reach third on Devin Beach's sacrifice bunt. He would score on a wild pitch.

SVEC would strand Seth McBride in scoring position in the second, then leave Dylan Austin and Garrett Cooke hanging in scoring position in the third.

Scales led off the third with a walk, Rinkavage reached on an error, then Durand scored Scales on a ground out to short to knot the game at one all.

Woodmansee singled to open the fourth, but Matt Byrne struck out the next two batters. Gabe Armstrong walked and Scales took one for the team to fill the sacks, but relief pitcher Dominic Grier came on to induce a fly out to right for the third out.

Dylan Austin walked and scored in the fourth to give SVEC a 2-1 edge. Meanwhile, Cooke was beaned for the 18th time on the season, but was thrown out by Brenton Rosenberg while attempting to steal third.

In the fifth, Durand was popped by a pitch, but was left stranded at second and the Eagles tacked on two more runs in their at-bats. McBride walked and Grube followed with an RBI double to left. He stole third and scored on a wild pitch to make it a 4-1 ball game.

Woodmansee got the win, giving up three runs on four walks and one hit over the final three innings. He struck out four. Grier took the loss, allowing six runs (five earned) on four hits over 2 1/23 innings.

Durand had one hit, one run and four RBI for NV; Scales had two hits, two runs and an RBI; Rinkavage contributed two hits and an RBI; and Sherwood added two hits and a run. Brandon Pintlet tacked on a hit and a run; Woodmansee had a hit and Gabe Armstrong added a run.

Newark Valley finishes the season with a 4-9 overall record and SVEC ends at 2-9.

Despite a rough season for the Eagles, Pierce is optimistic about the future of the youthful SVEC team, and its JV and junior high programs.

"There's a lot of talent coming up," he said. "Our JV program is getting stronger and our junior high program, I think, is undefeated right now, so they're playing well.

"Get these guys back, a core group of good guys up from JV and keep developing the program, and I think really good things are in the future."

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IN PHOTO 1: NV's Sam Durand (6) celebrates his homer with teammates. ... PHOTOS BY TIM TAYLOR.

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