The schools are separated by only about 20 miles of highway, yet the Herkimer County Community College Generals and the Mohawk Valley Community College Hawks are two of the final four combatants in this year's NJCAA Region III Baseball Tournament, with the winner punching a ticket to the NJCAA Division 3 World Series in Tyler, Texas two weeks from now.
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Brilliant sunshine painted the perfectly manicured green grass of Veteran's Park today as Herkimer (28-12) and Mohawk Valley (25-15) squared off for the fifth time this season, with each team taking two of the previous four games played.
Andrew Eggleston, a 6'4" sophomore righthander from Binghamton took the hill for the #1 seeded Generals, while the 4th seeded Hawks sent out sophomore Chris Tyson (Niskayuna, NY).
(HCCC's Andrew Eggleston (4) delivers a first inning pitch.)
It looked as though the Hawks might jump out quick when Eggleston walked two with one out in the top of the first but a ground out by Dante Shafer (Schenectady, NY) and a key strikeout of Rocco DeBlassis (Rome, NY) ended the Hawks early threat.
HCCC mounted a similar threat in the home half of the 2nd inning when they had two runners aboard with two out and MV third baseman Harry Campbell (South Jefferson) took a sharp ground ball off the bat of HCCC's Jeff Sergott (Oriskany, NY)) and made the put out at first to end the inning at 0-0.
The Hawks put their 5th, 6th and 7th baserunners of the game on in the top of the third when Andy Dickson (Oneonta, NY) reached on a walk, Kyle Richardson (Rome, NY) beat out a bunt single and Ryan Dungey (Vernon, NY) reached base on Eggleston's 5th walk of the game.
The Hawks threat went away quickly however as Eggleston got MVCC's Dante Shafer to fly out to shallow center, followed by consecutive strike outs to Pat O'Brien (Cicero, NY) and DeBlassis to end the third.
(MVCC's Zach Ciccotti (9) starts his slide into second as HCCC shortstop Alex Ferenti (11) cradles the throw from catcher Jeff Sergott for a key strike em' out throw em' out double play! )
Herkimer finally got things going in the bottom half of the fourth when Clinton's Lee Foxton led off with a sharp single to left center. One out later, Brett Hauber (Deposit, NY) belted a double to right center to score Foxton and put the top seed up 1-0, which is the way the fourth inning would finish.
Eggleston certainly found his groove, as the big righthander faced just 6 Hawks batters in the 4th and 5th innings, mixing up a sharp breaking pitch with a fast ball that seemed to jam MVCC's right handed hitters inside.
Oh, what a difference an inning makes! The Generals took complete command of this game and possibly the tournament in the bottom half of the fifth.
Brandon Jones (Sacramento, CA) started things off with a frozen rope single, followed by a bunt single from Whitesboro's George Hajjar to put runners on first and second with nobody out.
(HCCC's Alex Ferenti (11) turns on a fourth inning fastball. )
Amar Lewis (Troy, NY) next reached on an infield error to load the bases with Generals. Lee Foxton was hit by a pitch to to score Jones to make it 2-0 and another quick single by Kris Barone (Gloversville, NY) scored Hajjar to give the Generals a 3-0 lead, still with nobody out and the bases loaded. Brett Hauber then stepped in and knocked a long SAC fly to right to score Lewis to make it 4-0.
A walk to Alex Ferenti (Whitesboro, NY) scored Foxton to make it five zip and that would be all for Chris Tyson, who was relieved by Camden's Josh Seymore. The Generals would tack on three more runs, sending a total of 13 batters to the plate in the inning to take an 8-0 lead to the top of the 6th.
The Hawks were certainly placed in a do or die situation as tournament rules carry an 8 run mercy rule after 7 complete innings. With that in mind, Andrew Eggleston went out and shut the Hawks hitters down in order, three up and three down in the top of the sixth and seventh to give Herkimer (29-12) a key opening round win and a date with the winner of Hudson Valley and Niagara on Saturday.
Eggleston cruised to 7 innings of two hit, shutout baseball on the mound for the Generals. Chris Tyson gave up 5 runs, on 7 hits and walked 5 in the loss for MVCC.
(MVCC shortstop Dante Shafer (2) leaps high in the air to make a long throw to first early in the ball game.)
The Hawks (25-16) meanwhile await the HVCC / NCCC loser tonight at 7 p.m. in an elimination game.
HCCC 8 MVCC 0
Box Score
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
MVCC 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 x x 0 2 2
HCCC 0 0 0 1 7 0 x x x 8 9 0
(It's all good...HCCC Head Coach Jason Rathbun (center) takes a moment to smell the roses with catcher Jeff Sergott (right) and Lane Potter (left).)
Friday- Day One Results:
Game 1: HCCC 8 MVCC 0 (7 innings)
Game 2: Hudson Valley 6 Niagara 3
Game 3: MVCC 6 Niagara 5
Game 4: #1 Herkimer vs #3 Hudson Valley 12pm Saturday
Game 5: HCCC/HVCC loser vs MVCC 3:30pm Saturday
Saturday-Day Two Results:
Game 1: HCCC 11 Hudson Valley CC 3- HCCC in finals
Game 2: HVCC 11 MVCC 8
