No matter the venue, and no matter the conditions, the Vernon Verona Sherrill baseball team has discovered that it can pound away at Oneida pitching at will.
When the Red Devils beat the Indians 16-4 last Monday afternoon, it not only tied for first place in the Tri-Valley League West division (an important consideration), but it reinforced what had taken place 18 days earlier in Oneida.
That first meeting, on April 29, ended after six innings with VVS on top 30-11. Since then, Oneida had reclaimed first place in Tri-Valley West, but it knew that, unless it got revenge on the Red Devils, the league title could not be clinched.
Whatever hopes the Indians had to reverse course vanished in the bottom of the first inning. Going through its entire order, VVS tagged Jeremy Rodriguez for six runs, giving the hosts a lead it would not relinquish.
By the second, Rodriguez was gone, but the Red Devils kept going as red-hot Tyler Mautner smacked a two-run home run to make it 8-0.
Oneida briefly surged with a four-run rally in the top of the fourth, keyed by Andrew Hornyak’s two-run double. But VVS scored twice in the bottom of that frame to reach double digits, then tagged on a six-run sixth to really put things away.
Mitch Iseneker pitched the whole way despite allowing 10 hits. Mautner scored three times and finished with four RBIs as Jason Dalton drove in three runs. Zach Laguzza and Jamie Cielinski both had two hits and two RBIs.