Baseball

Lefty deals the right stuff

Strong outing by Sullivan West southpaw Grishaber fuels league-opening win over rival Burke

By RICHARD A. ROSS

JEFFERSONVILLE, NY - It was getting chillier by the minute on April 14 as Sullivan West and Burke went at each other in their league opener at Lions Field.

But despite the dropping temperatures, Eagle batters felt plenty of heat coming from Sullivan West pitcher Logan Grishaber. Taking the ball for the second time this season, Grishaber used his guile and craft to deliver six stellar innings to help the Bulldogs garner a 3-1 win over Burke in game one of a key Division IV series.

Jim Moloney struck out the side in the seventh to close the deal and, for once in a blue moon, Sullivan West beat the team that nearly always seems to have its way with its northern rival.

Bouncing back from a lackluster season-opening loss against Port Jervis one week prior, Grishaber quickly put a leadoff homer by Eagle Nick Sarda in the rearview mirror and bore down to launch his team into the rarified air of a victory over Burke.

It was only the first game of the three- game series and the first of 12 league games, so needless to say there was no hoopla. There were smiles, however, and extra oomph in the steps of the Bulldogs, who ran to take their postgame laps in the outfield. Moloney looked particularly pleased, as did Grishaber.

As senior Moloney wryly recollects, the Bulldogs had registered just one win over Burke in his three years on varsity. But on this day, the polarity switched and Sullivan West got electric play not only from Grishaber’s gritty ability to work out of jams, but from the Bulldogs’ timely hitting that delivered three runs, two of which were earned off of Burke ace John Commins.

To Moloney’s great delight, he got to close the door on the school that has beaten Bulldog teams like a drum. Moloney’s three K’s preserved the win and may have put an end to the flamboyant pitcher’s nightmares, induced by Burke over the past few years.

Grishaber struck out eight in six innings of work, yielding only four hits. In the first inning following Sarda’s blast to deep left, Grishaber worked out of a jam as Aiden Cooper walked and Mike Murphy’s single put two on with no out. Grishaber induced a ground out, a fly out and notched his first strike out by fanning Steve Ferrazzara to end the inning and limit the damage.

The Dawgs got that run right back in the bottom of the first as Brad Reimer singled and stole a base. He moved to third on a single by Mark Tesseyman and scored on a slow squibbler up the first baseline that stayed fair by Chris Story.

Grishaber allowed two men on again in the second inning via a single by Anthony VanCurran and a walk to Sarda, but notching the inning’s second strikeout by fanning Cooper ended Burke’s threat. Leaving seven runners stranded on base would turn out to be Burke’s Achilles’ heel.

Sullivan West took the lead they would never relinquish in the second inning. After Commins struck out Gaston Owen, Austin Sauer worked out a walk, moved to second on a ground out by Jesse Fadis and scored on a RBI single by Grishaber, who was bent on helping out with his bat as well as his arm.

The solid southpaw walked two in the third, giving Burke two on for the third time. But he fanned two and induced a flyout from Chris Undersinger to end the threat.

Sullivan West went quietly in the third as Commins continued his solid outing. A tied game or a Burke lead seemed in the offing in the fourth as VanCurran led off with a double and moved to third on a well-placed sac bunt by Joe Lynott. But Grishaber and company weren’t going to let that run score.

Grishaber got Sarda to bang into a 5-3 groundout and first baseman Tesseyman held the runner at third. Grishaber struck out Cooper to end the inning as Burke players began to show their frustration.

Sullivan West’s third run came across in the fourth as Owen hit a double and then scored with two out on an E-6 off the bat of Fadis.

Grishaber and Moloney combined to retire the final seven Burke batters as the Bulldogs (2-1, 1-0 OCIAA) nullified a single in the fifth by Connor Sullivan by picking him off base.

Burke (1-5, 0-1 OCIAA) returned the favor of erasing a Sullivan West runner as Moloney was caught trying to steal second in the Bulldogs’ fifth.

The series was set to resume at Burke’s homer dome on April 15, Tax Day, as the Bulldogs hoped to collect more revenue by beating the Eagles in their own aerie. The final game of the series was slated for April 17 in the Dawgs’ back yard.

Stay tuned for the series outcome but in the interim, visit riverreportersports.com for an album of game-one photos.