Baseball

Boom and broom

Dawgs maul Liberty in series opener and then win nail biters for the sweep

By RICHARD A. ROSS

JEFFERSONVILLE, NY — For Sullivan West ace hurler Brad Reimer, looking at the final score of the Bulldogs’ 28-3 victory over visiting Liberty in their series opener on May 4 must have been reminiscent of some games during football season. Four TDs and PATs to a mere field goal.

As quarterback, Reimer steered his gridiron team all the way to the Section Nine championship and the Bulldogs enjoyed some significant routs along the way.

But not against Liberty.

In fact, aside from the final game against Ellenville, the Liberty game was the toughest one of the fall season, a game either team could have won. That nail biter turned SW’s season north and sent Liberty’s south for the duration.

The teams split during basketball season, each vanquishing the other on their home courts. Liberty senior Chris Lake has fond memories of his trio of three pointers that helped fuel a win over the Bulldogs in February.

But in their diamond opener, no such parity was apparent. With Reimer on the mound, Liberty managed only one hit in five innings, while Sullivan West batters took batting practice against Liberty senior Rick Franke.

Reimer’s coaches at Division I LIU are encouraging him to leave his bat home when he enters the Blackbirds’ nest next fall, as they are primarily interested in his pitching acumen. But the senior phenom loves to hit and, whether he is on the mound or at shortstop, he’s an opposing pitcher’s nightmare.

Reimer went four for five and drove in six runs, two of which came in a moon shot of a homer in the most one-sided game the two schools have ever played.

In bygone years, the teams have pressed each other to the max, resulting in some superlative games/series, iconic plays, pitching duels and a truckload of memories. As the remainder of the series would prove, this game was an aberration.

Sullivan West would go on to win the other games by the scores of 10-9 and 5-4, but it would take two innings of scoreless relief by Reimer in the middle game and a two-run single in the bottom of the seventh by Austin Sauer to win the finale. Sauer struck out 10 in the game but got a no-decision. Mark Tesseyman went four for four to add to the dramatics of the series closer.

But the first game was a rout.

Reimer retired the first eight Liberty batters before walking Tino Casiano and Will McGuire in the third inning. Strike zones vary from umpire to umpire and Rei-mer was not getting the outside corner of the plate. Coming back over the plate, he served up a fastball to Lake, which he roped for an RBI double. That would be the only hit he’d surrender. His line included 10 strikeouts for his five innings of work.

But the Bulldogs had already accumulated six runs with two in the first and four in the second as they pounded out hit after hit off Franke, who came up to varsity last year but saw only limited action.

The Bulldogs greeted him in the first with a trio of doubles from Eric Minton, Logan Grishaber and Mark Tesseyman. The latter two drove in runs.

In the second inning, RJ Rosa led off with a single, stole second and then moved to third on a Gaston Owen single. Ryan Alsdorf plated a run with a single. Franke would be called for a pair of balks, the first of which scored Rosa. Reimer’s two-run blast scored Minton, who had singled three batters earlier.

One began to hope that an imminent downpour would render what Shakespeare referred to as “the quality of mercy.”

No such luck.

Sullivan West piled on seven more runs in the bottom of the third inning that began ominously as Jeremy DeGori was plunked on the helmet by a Franke pitch gone awry. Two errors had Liberty coach John Wilhelm shaking his head in dismay. Sullivan West coach Kurt Scheibe, Jr. began to insert subs, who in turn began to wreak damage of their own. Michael Durkin’s RBI single in the fourth was evidence of such.

Sullivan West had nine players with multiple hits. Chris Lake had three hits and knocked in a run for Liberty. By the end of the series, Sullivan West had improved to an impressive 10-2, 5-1 OCIAA, while Liberty slipped to 3-10, 3-6 OCIAA.

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