Finally baseball in Upstate NY!!!

UR played 2 games against St. Lawrence today, sunny, blue skies, very cold and breezy, but at least they were playing.

The boys beat St. Lawrence twice, going to 6-0 in conference, which is HUGE!!

Blair Veenema pitched a gem in game 1, a 1 hit, complete game shutout in 7 innings. The first 4 1/2 innings were scoreless with both pitchers doing a great job, then the Rochester boys got busy at the plate. Nate Stein walked to start the inning. Matt Francis sacrificed him to 2nd with a bunt. Blayne Fuke walked and Andy Cannon doubled home Stein. Ed Kahovec walked, and during the at bat, Blayne scored on a wild pitch and Andy moved up to 3rd. Jay Jay Vanderstyne hit a sac fly to score Andy and Ryan Sullivan and Dan Brien followed with doubles, Briens hitting the 350 sign in left center. Dave Kloc singled to score Brien and Stein was up again in the inning, and grounded out to end it. Six runs!!! We added 4 more in the bottom of the 6th inning and Blair finished it!! Through the 1st 5 innings Blair only faced 15 batters, the least amount possible as he was aided by a double play and a caught stealing. Everyone played very well!!

Game 2 was more of a struggle. Pete McEneaney got out of a first inning bases loaded jam, by getting the batter to hit a ground ball to short - over to 1st and we were out of the inning. UR gave him some run support by scoring 2 runs in the bottom of the first with 2 hits, ( Cannon and Kahovec), 2 walks, (Sullivan and Vanderstyne), and a sac fly by Dave Kloc. We added another run in the 3rd inning when Dan Brien started off with a triple and scored on a passed ball. St. Lawrence came storming back in the top of the 4th, to tie it up at 3. The bullpen struggled in finding the plate, Luke Brocks finally silenced the threat in the 6th, and John Fishback closed it out in the 7th!!

Both games were 7 inning games today and the current rumour is that the 2 games against Keuka tomorrow will also be 7 innings each.

Pitching will be stretched thin this week, rain is in the forecast for Friday, this may help. If the Union games are pushed to Saturday and Sunday, Sunday's games will have to be played somewhere other than at UR, due to a track meet!

On the injury report side of things: Matt Francis suffered what seemed to be a concussion in a collision at 2nd base, he was replaced by Jim Bard. Hopefully, he will be ok and back in the lineup soon! Also, saw Devin Shane for a few minutes after the game, he looks great, and was very upbeat about his prognosis for a full recovery and he may be back at UR next year!

See you at the ballpark!!

Ed