In the wake of the Vernon Verona Sherrill baseball team’s 16-4 win over Oneida on Monday, both sides would play again 24 hours later.
And both would win in extra innings, as VVS rallied past Whitesboro 6-5 in eight innings and Oneida stopped Utica-Notre Dame 5-4 in nine innings.
For the Red Devils, it meant seeing leads of 2-1 and 3-2 get away in regulation despite Jesse Whitmeyer’s solid pitching. Whitesboro tied the game again in the seventh on a Brendan Heitz double, then inched ahead 4-3 in the top of the eighth thanks to a VVS error.
Once again, though, the Red Devils’ bats would come through in the bottom of the eighth. In order, Tyler Mautner and Mitch Iseneker singled before Steve Davis got his own hit, bringing home Mautner to tie it.
Jason Dalton’s single brought up Laguzza, whose infield hit allowed Iseneker to race home with the winning run.
Overall, Iseneker had three hits and two RBIs, while Dalton and Jamie Cielinski both had two hits and Dalton scored three runs, in addition to his inning of relief pitching.
Thus, to stay tied for first, Oneida had to beat Utica-Notre Dame — and would need a rare feat from Nate Mallinder, too, as he hit for the cycle in timely and dramatic fashion.
In regulation, Mallinder singled and tripled to help the Indians get leads of 1-0 and 3-2. However, the Jugglers came back both times and were up 4-3 going to the top of the seventh.
Though Mallinder doubled to lead off the seventh, Oneida was one out from defeat when Brian Chevier offered a reprieve in the form of a two-out ground-rule double that allowed Mallinder to score the tying run.
It remained 4-4 until the ninth, when Mallinder stepped to the plate again. This time, he crushed an Alex Lynch pitch and sent it over the fence — a home run to complete his cycle.
Ryan Shene did the rest, pitching two innings of perfect relief to get the win. Dylan VanDresar pitched seven regulation innings and struck out 10.
