Up and down throughout the season, the Hamilton baseball team had to find good momentum again as the regular season passed its midway point.
In that quest, the Emerald Knights faced neighbor and rival Morrisville-Eaton on Friday and had a fine all-around performance, bashing the Warriors 12-1.
It started with Kinnon Nolan-Finkel, as the pitching ace held M-E to a scant two hits and a single run in the sixth, long after Hamilton had taken control.
M-E pitcher Kameron Brown started to labor in the second, as the Emerald Knights scored three times. Three more runs followed in the third, and Hamilton batted around in the fourth, getting six more tallies to clinch it.
To help his own cause, Nolan-Finkel tripled and doubled, with Ben Yacavone adding a pair of doubles. Lucas Rhyde also had a double.
The Emerald Knights were 6-2 before running into Oriskany last Monday and taking a 10-5 loss to the Redskins.
Oriskany doubled Hamilton’s hit total, 12 to six, and took full advantage of the Emerald Knights’ four errors to bolt out to a 9-2 lead through three innings.
Don Philhower took the loss. Nolan-Finkel, who pitched a long stint in relief, had three hits, half of Hamilton’s total, as Mike Bunal and Matt Higgins both hit home runs on the Redskins’ behalf.
On Wednesday, against Richfield Springs, the Emerald Knights again fell behind, but this time was able to come back and prevail 6-3.
All of Richfield’s runs came in the first inning. After that point, Philhower and Rhyde combined for six shutout innings, giving Hamilton lots of time to storm back.
Sure enough, the Emerald Knights got a run in the third and two more in the fifth to pull even, 3-3. Then, in the sixth, Dan Meeks’ run-scoring hit put Hamilton in front, and Jack Sullivan’s two-run double added some cushion.
Morrisville-Eaton got a much-needed win on May 1, pounding Madison 13-4 behind Ben Thomas producing four hits, including a home runs, and pitching four innings for the win as Miek Sanders added three hits.
Two days later, Monday afternoon, the Warriors topped Richfield Springs 4-1. A trio of first-inning runs was all Brown needed as he stymied Richfield with nine strikeouts against just three hits allowed. Thomas doubled and twice scored runs as Matt Pelton earned two hits and Jamie Maciag contributed a double.
Now M-E went for three in a row Wednesday, at West Canada Valley, but could not pull it off in a 10-3 loss to the Indians.
WCV was up 2-0 when it scored five times in the fourth inning and added three runs in the fifth. First-team All-State basketball selection Jared Suderley had a triple and double. Will Thomas took the loss, with Ben Thomas getting two hits and joining Pelton, Will Thomas and Derek Rogers with single RBIs.
