Softball

Dawgs unleashed

Sullivan West looks dominant in opening win over S.S. Seward

By RICHARD A. ROSS

JEFFERSONVILLE, NY — A series of weather-related cancellations forestalled the start of their baseball season but when the sun finally shone through on April 9, the Sullivan West Bulldogs broke free of their leash and ran wild.

Once the Westies took to the field against S.S. Seward, their pent-up urgency erupted with a fearsome combination of powerful pitching, timely hitting and effective fielding, highlighted by a nifty 1-6-2 double play en route to an 18-3 thrashing of the visiting Spartans.

Senior starter Brad Reimer was dominant, especially early on, striking out nine batters through the first four innings.

He recorded 11 K’s through six innings and yielded just one run in his first outing. Reimer, who will be officially signing with Division I Long Island University (LIU) this week, had great command of his pitches as the sharp LIU Blackbirds prospect mowed down Seward batters in short order.

The Bulldogs got the early lead in the second inning as Mark Tesseyman led off with a double and came home on a single by Austin Sauer. But the big blow came in the third inning as Sullivan West pounced on Spartan starter Nick Salamone.

The inning began ominously for Seward as Eric Minton reached on an E-4. Minton would be the first of 12 batters to come to the plate. By the time the dust cleared, eight runs had scored. Reimer had a two-run triple to help the cause. Tesseyman had a RBI single, Gaston Owen plated two with a base hit, Ryan Alsdorf knocked in two more with a double and Minton capped it off with a RBI single.

Tesseyman ended up with three hits and two RBI on the day. Scott Glowaczewski led the Spartans with two hits.

The Bulldogs tacked on two runs in the fourth inning with RBI from Owen and Alsdorf. They drove in Tesseyman and Harold Smith, who had both reached on singles. Sullivan West’s hitters proceeded to victimize Seward relievers Justin Sinisi and Danny Dagele.

The Bulldogs scored seven runs in the sixth inning as a single by Lucas Bauer and a pair of walks to Owen and R.J. Rosa loaded the bases. Alsdorf, Minton, Logan Grishaber, Tesseyman and Sauer had RBI. Two more runs scored on passed balls.

“Reimer pitched a really good game and we hit the ball well the second time through the line up, “ said Sullivan West coach Kurt Scheibe Jr. “I’d like to see us play a little bit better defense. We zoned out a couple of times but, by and large, we made plays and hit the ball when we needed to.”

Sullivan West (1-0) traveled to Fallsburg on April 14 for its opening game in the John Spear Memorial Tournament. They hosted Tri-Valley on April 15 as the tournament continued. The winner’s bracket and consolation games will be on April 18 in Monticello.

Visit riverreportersports.com for an album of game photos.