Prep Baseball Report

Canton gives DII Sova the third degree; DII Maynard outlasts DII DiStaffen in pitching duel



By PAUL GOTHAM
PBR New York Contributor 

DII Blatter 6 DII Sova 5
Korey Canton (Greece Odyssey) finished 3-for-3 on the night including a leadoff single in the sixth inning as DII Blatter rallied for its eighth straight win in Upstate Baseball League action at Basket Road Field, Thursday night. Canton singled inside the right field line and scored his third run of the night on a Gage Ziehl (Penfield) one-out base hit to knot the game at five. Joey Alphonse (Greece Olympia) beat out an intended sacrifice bunt and eventually came home with the winning run. Caleb Courtemanche (Avon) fanned one and retired all three batters he faced in the seventh for his first save of the season. Christian Blatter (McQuaid) struck out two and allowed two runs on two hits over two innings for the win. In a game containing four lead changes, Grant Rodriguez (Rush-Henrietta) gave DII Sova a 5-4 edge in the fifth with a two-run inside-the-park shot to right center. Nolan Hicks (Fairport) led the inning with his second hit of the night, moved to second on a Sam DeGrace (Webster Thomas) sacrifice bunt before scoring on the Rodriguez blast. Morgen Major (Mynderse) threw two scoreless innings of relief in a losing effort. Owen Lyons (Geneseo) set down two on strikes and tossed a scoreless frame for DII Blatter. 

DII Maynard 1 DII DiStaffen 0
A trio of pitchers scattered five hits in a shutout effort, and DII Maynard scored a late run for its second win in three games. Patrick Xander (McQuaid) struck out three over two innings for his first win of the season. Michael Contini (Rush-Henrietta) set down all six batters he faced over two scoreless. Going back to his last outing on August 15th, Contini has retired the last 12 batters he’s faced. The left-hander has allowed one run on one hit over his last three appearances – a span including seven innings of work. Jadon Masucci (Webster Thomas) started and fanned five over three innings. Xander singled and scored the game’s only run in the seventh inning. After his leadoff base hit to left field, Alan Michael LeFrois (Churchville-Chili) walked and the two advanced on a double steal. One out later, Xander scampered home on a Nick Stodgell (Brighton) broken-bat RBI groundout. Caden Hann (Webster Thomas) started and struck out five over three innings of work in a losing effort. Caleb Richardson (Greece Athena) hurled two scoreless innings in relief for DII DiStaffen. Ben Sousa (Honeoye Falls-Lima) beat out a pair of infield singles in the game. DII DiStaffen’s Justin Hodil (Canisius) reached on a one-out error in the seventh, moved to third on a pair of wild pitches but was left stranded 90 feet away. The teams combined to commit just one error in the game.