Baseball | 5/14/2021 10:14:00 PM
No. 2 Houghton College and (20-13) and No. 3 seed Utica College (17-15) traded wins in games one and two of the 2021 Empire 8 Baseball Championship Semfinal series on Friday, May 14 . The Highlanders took game one 8-7 on walkoff hit before the Pioneers offense showed up for a 18-5 win in game two to force a winner-take-all game three in Houghton tomorrow at 3 p.m.
The game three winner will head to top-seed St. John Fisher for the best-of-three Empire 8 Championship series which begins with a doubleheader next Friday, May 21 at noon.
GAME 1 - HOUGHTON 8, UTICA 7
Houghton scored four runs over the final two innings to defeat Utica 8-7 in game one of the Empire 8 Semifinals. Kevin Zientara blasted a walk-off home run to lead off the ninth inning and complete the comeback for the Highlanders.
After a quiet two innings from both teams, the Pioneers broke the scoring skid with three runs in the third inning. Shamariah McCullough belted his first home run of the season on a two-run shot to right field to put UC ahead 2-0. Two batters later, Joe Battista singled home John Son to extend Utica's lead to 3-0.
One inning later, McCullough singled home Michael Muentener in the fourth to put UC ahead 4-0. In the home half of the inning, Utica starter Griffin Baur allowed his first runs of the game on a two-run home run as the Highlanders closed the gap to 4-2. A wild pitch off the hand of Baur allowed another run to come across in the fifth inning to make it a 4-3 game in favor of Utica.
In the top of the sixth inning, Jason Story stepped up and blasted a two-run home run, his second of the season, to put the Pioneers ahead 6-3. Son then put UC ahead 7-3 in the top of the eighth inning on a double to center field to score Sean Vanegas. Houghton added a run in the 6th inning by way of a wild pitch to make it a 7-4 game.
Although the game seemed to be in Utica's control, Houghton came storming back in the later innings. After Baur was removed from the game entering the eighth inning the Highlanders erupted for three runs in the home half to even the game at seven apiece.
McCulough, Son and Cronk each recorded two hits in the game while Baur allowed four runs on five hits over seven innings of work to go along with 12 strikeouts and no walks.
GAME 2 - UTICA 18, HOUGHTON 5
UC jumped on the board early on with a run in the top of the first inning. Battista singled home Cronk to put the Pioneers ahead 1-0 before the Highlanders struck back in the home half with two runs to take a one run lead into the 2nd inning. However, that would be Houghton's only lead of the game as the Utica offense put its foot on the gas and never let up over the final eight innings of play.
In the third inning, Battista singled home another run to even the game while Matthew Leviton and Matthew Fitzgerald followed suit with an RBI each to put Utica ahead 4-2 after three.
UC pushed across eight more runs in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings as they held a 12-2 lead. Son's grand slam in the ninth inning put the nail in the coffin as the Pioneers came out with a 18-5 win in game two. Battista and Muentener each went 4-for-5 at the plate, combining for eight of the team's 13 hits, while Muentener recorded three RBIs in the win.
James Roeschlaub earned the win as the lefty tossed 6.1 innings in which he allowed five runs (two earned) on 10 hits while striking out 10 Highlanders.