Lakers Advance to Regionals by sweeping Red Barons
CORNING, N.Y. – The Finger Lakes Community College baseball team swept a doubleheader at Corning Community College on Thursday by the scores of 14-4 and 13-3. The two wins combined with an Alfred State College win over Jamestown Community College qualifies Finger Lakes for the sub-regional tournament. The Lakers finished the season 17-12 in Region III's Western Division and stand 23-26 overall.
The Lakers got out to a quick start in game one. Joey Simmons got the game going by taking the second pitch to left field for a leadoff double. With Kyle Consolie at bat, Simmons would steal third base and Consolie would work a walk. An errant pickoff attempt on Consolie would allow Simmons to score and advance Consolie to second. He would steal third base and score when Dylan Catlin reached on an error.
The Lakers held a 2-0 lead after one and would push across three more in the second. Hunter Hey continued his hot hitting and led off with a single. A single by Aaron Freida would follow that. Hey would work around and score a play later. Consolie drew his second walk in as many innings and stole second base. With runners on second and third, Catlin delivered a single that would score two and push the lead to 5-0.
Sophomore Dakota Stackhouse got the ball for Finger Lakes and turned in another strong performance. Stackhouse would strike out seven in his 4 2/3 innings of work. He would carry a no-hitter into the fourth inning.
Finger Lakes would strike for two more in the fourth on three straight hits by the top of the order. Simmons tripled and scored on a Consolie single. Consolie would steal second base and score on a single by Catlin. A pair of walks and a pair of singles would widen the game to a 9-0 lead in favor of Finger Lakes until the Red Barons got on the board in the bottom half of the inning. They got four runs and continued to threaten, but Danny Baker came out to strand the bases loaded with a fly out to left field.
Finger Lakes would put the game away in the top of the sixth. It got started with a Branden Rhodes double down the left field line with one out. Two straight walks would load the bases and Freida would get hit by a pitch to force in a run. With two outs, Consolie would hit a two-run double and would be scored by Catlin's fourth single of the day to make the game 14-4. Baker would close it out in the sixth for the mercy victory.
Catlin finished the game with four hits and Consolie had three. In total, the Lakers had 14 hits and 10 stolen bases to lead to their 13 runs.
The score was tied at 1-1 in game two going into the third inning until the Laker offense exploded for eleven runs. It all got started with a single by Simmons. He would steal second and score on a Consolie single. Troy Loparco would drive Consolie home with a double. Rhodes followed that with a single that plated Nate Eastman and Loparco. Nicholas Petrantoni was next up and took the first pitch off of the forearm. Both he and Rhodes would move up on passed balls, one of which scored Rhodes. Corey Galletta would single home Petrantoni and Hey would follow with a walk (the eighth straight batter to reach base). The Red Barons would get the next two batters out, but the Lakers would get the bats going again with two outs. Consolie would have a two-run single. Eastman, Loparco, and Rhodes would hit back-to-back-to-back doubles to finish the inning with the Lakers leading 12-1.
Corning would push two runs across in the bottom of the third before the Lakers answered with another run in the top of the fourth. The Lakers would close it out in the fifth inning due to the mercy rule. The final score was 13-3. Simmons and Consolie each had three hits for the Lakers. Consolie also drove in three as part of a perfect 3-3 day. Loparco and Hey also had perfect days at the plate as they both went 2-2 with a walk. Corey Lendel closed the final two innings for the Lakers while facing the minimum six batters and striking out two.
With the win, Finger Lakes advances to the sub-regionals. It will play a three-game series at Herkimer County Community College. They will play games one and two on Saturday, and game three will be on Sunday, if necessary. First pitch of game one is scheduled for noon.