Prep Baseball Report

Gassler dials zero; Specht paces DI Wiktorski



By PAUL GOTHAM
PBR New York Contributor 

DI Christiano 6 DI Bunting 3
John Gassler set down the first 10 he faced and allowed one hit over five shutout innings as DI Christiano stopped a two-game skid in Upstate Baseball League action at Basket Road Field, Wednesday night. Gassler struck out six and walked one in dominating performance. One outing after getting saddled with his first loss of the season, the 6-foot-1 left-hander improved to 3-1. He threw 67 pitches – 40 for strikes and allowed just three balls out of the infield. Austin Avanzato (Midlakes) finished 3-for-4 on the night including an RBI infield single in the third to give DI Chrisitiano a lead it did not surrender. Sam Velletri (Brockport) led the inning with a base hit and moved to third on a pair of wild pitches before Avanzato delivered. Avanzato eventually scored for a 2-0 lead. Avanzato capped a three-run fourth with solo shot to left center, and DI Christiano took a commanding lead. Velletri drove in the first run of the inning with a single up the middle to score Jake LaPlant (Williamson).  DI Bunting’s Casey Saucke II (Greece Athena) collected his third straight multi-hit game going 2-for-2 on the night. The freshman infielder plated Reece Correa (School of the Arts) and Amaury Samalot Jr. (Churchville-Chili) with a single up the middle as DI Bunting pushed across three runs in the seventh. Samalot drove in Max Yale (Honeoye) earlier in the frame. Saucke is 6-for-10 with two RBI and a run scored in his last three games. DI Christiano closes the regular season at 5-3-1. DI Bunting is 2-7. 

DI Wiktorski 11 DI Graham 1
Ray Specht (Rush-Henrietta) paced a 12-hit attack and finished a triple short of the cycle as DI Wiktorski closed the regular season with its third straight win. Specht led the bottom of the first with an inside-the-park solo shot to right center – his first home run of the season. He singled home a run in a three-run second, doubled and scored in the fourth and singled again in the sixth. Andrew Sanchez (Rush-Henrietta) finished 3-for-4 with three RBI and a run scored. Ryan Lukas (Victor) went 2-for-3 with three runs scored and Gavin Moore (Hilton) had a hit, an RBI and two runs scored as the top four in the DI Wiktorski order combined for 10 hits, 10 runs scored and six RBI. John Faynor (Lima Christian) struck out four over two innings of work for the win. The left-hander surrendered one run on two hits. A quartet of relievers combined to hurl five shutout innings. Jayson Faynor (Lima Christian) fanned three and walked one over two scoreless. Ben Cowles (Newark) struck out one of the four batters he faced. Jesse Kabat (Mynderse) set down two on strikes, and Robert Oliveri (Hilton) had one strike out in the seventh. Maxx Countryman (Avon) collected a hit, a walk and scored DI Graham’s only run. Dylan Mackenzie (Canandaigua) had an RBI. DI Wiktorksi closed the regular season 5-4. DI Graham is 5-3-1.