Saturday at St. Lawrence

Saturday turned out to be a very nice day, so close to Canada, yet warm and sunny for this part of upstate NY.



Today, UR was the home team, and you had to do a double take at the scoreboard, because the linescore was blank when UR was batting, but underneath the score was posted for the Saints. It just looked a little wierd.

Blair Veenema was on the hill for UR in the first game. The Yellowjackets scored first in the bottom of the first inning. Dan Brien singled and scored on Casey Storme's double. Storme scored on Jay Jay Vanderstyne's single. UR led 2-0 after 1 inning!



St. Lawrence got a run back in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th innings to make the score 3-2, them after 4 innings. In the 5th, Luke Brocks came in for Blair Veenema with men on 2nd and 3rd and only 1 out. He was able to get out of the inning without a run scoring! The second time in as many days!!

In the bottom of the 5th, Andy Cannon singled, stole 2nd, and scored on Blayne Fuke's RBI single. Tie score at 3-3!

In the bottom of the 6th, Casey Storme hit a hard grounder that the shortstop mishandled and then threw away, allowing him to go to 2nd base. Jay Jay Vanderstyne advanced him to 3rd with a sac bunt, and when Ryan Sullivan pinch hit an RBI single, Casey scored the go ahead run!

UR now led 4-3, going into the 7th. Ned Chanatry came on to replace Luke Brocks and closed out the game with a 1-2-3 inning to give Brocks the win and himself the save, his 3rd of the young season!!

In the nitecap, Paul Toland took the mound to try to give the Yellowjackets a 3-1 record against the Saints over the weekend. UR was probably fortunate to be 2-1 at this point, with 3 very close games that all could have went either way with a break or 2 for either team. St. Lawrence has had a history of playing UR tough over the past few years.

The Saints drew first blood with a homerun with nobody on in the top of the 2nd inning to take a 1-0 lead. In the bottom half, Dan Ludwig walked and took 2nd on a wild pitch. Matt Francis singled to score Ludwig and then stole 2nd base and reached 3rd base on an error by the catcher. Brian Bezek singled to score Francis, Andy Cannon walked, and Blayne Fuke singled to score Bezek. 3-1 UR after 2 innings!

UR added another run in the 3rd on a Dan Ludwig single followed by a Matt Francis triple, now 4-1 UR!

UR added another run in the 4th when Blayne Fuke singled, advanced to 2nd on Dan Brien's groundout, advanced to 3rd on a wild pitch and scored on Casey Storme's RBI single making it 5-1 UR after 4 innings.

In the 6th, UR would get more. Casey Storme doubled off the top of the fence in leftcenter, just missing a homerun by a scant few inches! Ryan Sullivan singled to score Storme and scored when Jay Jay Vanderstyne tripled. Vanderstyne scored when Ludwig grounded out to 2nd base. 3 more runs and UR led 8-1!

Paul Toland came out of the game after 6 innings and allowing 1 run on 5 hits, 1 walk, 1 hit by pitch, and 10 strikeouts!! Another great performance!

Chris Olsen started the 7th inning in his first appearance of 2009 and unfortunately, it did not go very well, his control was off and Ryan Sullivan replaced him and got 3 fly outs to end the inning after the Saints had scored 2 runs to pull within 8-3.

UR got those 2 runs back in the next 1/2 inning when Brian Bezek singled and then stole 2nd base, Bezek advanced to 3rd on Andy Cannon's single and when Cannon stole 2nd, UR had 2 men in scoring position. When Dan Brien singled, Bezek scored and Cannon advanced to 3rd, then Cannon scored when the outfielder made an error. Now 10-3 UR after 7 innings.

Ryan Sullivan retired St. Lawrence 1-2-3 in both the 8th and 9th innings to earn a save and preserve the win for Rochester.

Blayne Fuke, Casey Storme, Dan Ludwig, Matt Francis, and Brian Bezek each had 2 hits apiece to lead the offense! Finally, a game that was not that close and a 3-1 record against a Liberty League team that has always played UR tough!!

Afterward, the parents hosted a cookout for the team that was enjoyed by all and was sponsored in part by the Barnard and Fuke families! Thanks to them and Thanks to all who brought something to share and support the team! Coach expressed his appreciation in an email that I hope you all got to see.

We are planning to have another cookout this weekend at Union, please review the email and respond to the blog, to allow us to plan for this event.

Thanking everyone in advance, it is truly appreciated by the team and coaching staff.

See you at the ballpark!

Ed