With solid opening-round efforts, the Vernon Verona Sherrill and Oneida baseball teams made sure that it got to stay at home through the early phase of the Section III Class A playoffs.
Given the no. 3 seed with its 16-4 mark, the Red Devils jumped all over no. 14 seed Homer in last Tuesday afternoon’s opening round with nine rounds in the first inning and cruised the rest of the way past the Trojans 13-5.
At the same time, the no. 4 seed Indians met some early trouble against no. 13 seed New Hartford, but responded with yet another offensive outburst in the late going to rally past the Spartans 16-12.
Quite familiar with New Hartford through Tri-Valley League action, Oneida did not get too fazed when the Spartans took an early 4-1 lead, tying it with three runs in the bottom of the third.
Then it went back and forth. Twice, the Spartans went ahead, by margins of 6-4 and 11-8. Both times, the Indians used four-run innings to reclaim the lead.
And when New Hartford tied it 12-12 in the top of the sixth, Oneida struck once more with its third straight four-run rally in the bottom of the sixth, finally moving ahead for good.
Brian Chevier, Nate Mallinder and Bryan Sheridan each had three hits, with Chevier earning four RBIs and Mallinder scoring four runs. Andrew Hornyak’s home run and double led to three RBIs as Dylan VanDresar also drove in three runs, earning a triple. Jeremy Rodriguez pitched a scoreless seventh inning to earn the win after early pitching stints from VanDresar and Ryan Shene.
None of this stress could be found at VVS, for unlike its last two regular-season games (both won late), the Red Devils put away Homer early.
With two on in the bottom of the first, Steve Davis stepped up — and drilled a home run. That ignited a trip around the order that didn’t stop until VVS had scored nine times.
More offense would follow, as Davis drove in another run, Jamie Cielinski pounded out three hits, Mitch Iseneker had three RBIs and Tyler Mautner drove in two runs.
VVS led by as much as 13-2 before the Trojans had a three-run outburst in the seventh to make things closer. Still, Iseneker pitched a complete game.
On Thursday, VVS will meet no. 11 seed Cortland (who knocked out defending champion Mexico 5-4) in the quarterfinals, while Oneida, also at home, clashes with no. 5 seed East Syracuse-Minoa, who took out Camden 12-6 to get this far.
