In recent months, no matter what the sport, every time Vernon Verona Sherrill wanted to do something great, it appeared that Oneida got in the way.
Which only made the baseball Red Devils’ 12-0 destruction of the Indians in Tuesday’s opening round of the Section III Class A playoffs that much sweeter to any VVS partisan.
What happened here went quite contrary to the regular season. In both those meetings, Oneida won, by comfortable margins of 10-3 and 17-6. And it was part of the reason the Indians had the no. 6 seed for the Class A tournament and would be at home against no. 11 seed VVS.
One big inning, though, melted away all the Indians had worked for — and propelled the Red Devils far out in front.
Oneida pitchers Ryan Shene (who got replaced after just four batters) and Nate Mallinder got lit up, as the first seven VVS batters reached base, leading to four runs, two of them coming home on Rob Sweet’s double.
Jeremy Roden supplied the bookends, opening the game with a double off Shene, then smacking a Mallinder pitch over the fence for a three-run home run to cap off an eight-run explosion.
As if that wasn’t enough, VVS scored three more times in the top of the second to make it 11-0, and while a lot of time remained in the game, the Indians were demoralized.
What’s more, Red Devils pitcher Jason Dalton was shutting down the potent Oneida lineup. All the Indians could manage was four hits, as Dalton struck out seven Indian hitters and got error-free defense behind him, too.
Sweet, Mitch Iseneker and Kevin Sayles each had two hits as VVS, overall, got 11 hits. Roden went three-for-four with three run scored.
Oneida’s season was done (14-7), but VVS has another big road test against a Tri-Valley League foe on tap when it meets no. 3 seed Camden in the Class A quarterfinals.
