Spring Trip Update # 3 - UAA Tournament

Our first game in the UAA's was against Brandeis on Tuesday. We started strong scoring a run in the bottom of the first inning, Brandeis answered with 2 in the top of the 2nd and we scored 1 in the bottom of the 2nd to tie 2-2 after 2 innings. Brandeis scored 2 in the top of the 4th and we answered with 1 in the bottom of the 4th. Both teams posted a run in the 6th and Brandeis added 1 in the 7th to lead 6-4. After a scoreless 8th inning, Brandeis scored 4 runs on 5 hits and were aided by an error, to take a 10-4 lead. Matt Francis walked to lead off the inning and many of us were thinking, here we go again, another comeback! Devin Shane solidified that thinking with a single moving Francis to 3rd! Andy Cannon flied out scoring Francis, 10-5! Ed Kahovec then homered to left to make it 10-7!! Ryan Sullivan singled and we were all believers at this point!! Jay Jay Vanderstyne lined out to right and Ryan was doubled off first, bursting the comeback bubble of the Rochester faithful! Tough way to end the game, but there were still many positives to talk about - Paul Toland pitching well, Dave Kloc going 2 for 3 with 2 runs, and Ed Kahovec going 3 for 4 with a homerun. In talking with several of the boys after the game, they were not happy with their individual efforts due to the team losing the game!

On Wednesday the team played against Case Western Reserve, and they started early with 1 run in the 1st and 9 in the 2nd, to lead 10-0. Case scored single runs in the 4th-8th innings, while UR added 1 in the 5th to cruise to a 11-5 victory. Luke Brocks got the win in 5 innings, Mike Wexler pitched 3 innings in relief, and John Fishback finished the 9th with 2 strikeouts with 2 men on base. Jay Jay Vanderstyne and Ed Kahovec both had 3 hits and Andy Cannon, Dan Brien, and Matt Francis added 2 hits apiece in a 16 hit attack.

Thursday was the big day of the tournament for the Yellowjackets with a doubleheader against Washington and Emory. The Wash U game was memorable for being a pitchers duel with Pete McEneaney shutting out Wash U for 8 innings before John Fishback finished the game in the 9th inning to preserve the shutout! Tyler Reid hit a triple off the wall in left to lead off the 4th inning and Nate Stein scored him with a groundout to the right side. The second UR run was scored by Matt Francis in the 9th, when Ryan Sullivan drove him home with a single. Low scoring - YES, exciting - YES, beating Wash U - PRICELESS!

Emory was next - they finished 2nd in the nation in 2007, and were ranked 5th coming into the tournament. UR started out hot, we batted all 9 players in the top of the 1st inning and scored 4 runs. We added 3 runs to that total in the top of the 3rd to take a 7-0 lead after 3. Emory scored 1 run in the 4th, and added 4 in the 5th. At the end of 6 innings we still led 7-5, and we added a run in the top of the 7th to lead 8-5, then the pitching staff struggled to find the plate and Emory scored 7 times in the 7th to take a 12-8 lead. We answered with 1 in the 8th to close within 3 at 12-9. Emory then went on to score 3 in the bottom of the 8th to put the game out of reach at 15-9. We scored 1 run in the top of the 9th and the final score was 15-10. A dissapointing loss for sure! Both teams used 6 pitchers each, and both teams had 14 hits! This was a great chance to beat one of the best D3 teams in the country, but they were able to hold on and come back against us!

We played Case on Friday and got a great pitching performance from Steve Guzski, who tossed a shutout for 7 innings. We scored in the top of the first to take a 1-0 lead and added 2 runs in the top of the 7th to lead 3-0! Case came back to score 4 runs in the bottom of the 9th and get their only win of the tournament! Case has hurt us the last 2 years in this tournament.

The last game of the tournament was against Wash U, who was looking to avenge the earlier defeat, and a win would get them a share of the UAA Title with a record of 4-2. We were at 2-3 and wondering how the wheels had fallen off such a promising week!

The boys came out hot again and posted 20 runs on 20 hits walking over Wash U in a laugher 20-4! This was a great way to finish the week. Andy Cannon, Ryan Sullivan, and Matt Francis had 3 hits each and Andy also had 5 RBI's. Mike Park pitched well and Justin Long finished up the game in the 7th. It only went 7 due to the mercy rule.

All in all it was a great week in Florida, the weather cooperated very nicely, the team came home with an 8-3 record, but there were many who were thinking of what might have been - we easily could have been the UAA Champs by ourselves - but that's baseball!! The team has some things to work on as they prepare for the Liberty League schedule and a challenging non-conference schedule. One game at a time, one inning at a time, one at bat at a time, and there is no telling how far this team may go!