No one has come close to stopping the Vernon Verona Sherrill baseball team in its march to the Section III Class A championship game.
In three playoff appearances, the Red Devils have scored double-digit runs and won big, and that trend continued in Saturday’s semifinal, when VVS went to no. 2 seed Watertown and smacked the Cyclones 10-2.
VVS nearly got a title game against archrival Oneida – but the no. 4 seed Indians lost its semifinal to surging no. 9 seed Whitesboro 6-2, so it’s the Warriors meeting the Red Devils Tuesday at 4:30 at Alliance Bank Stadium, home of the Syracuse Chiefs.
Already in the sectional tournament, VVS had disposed of Homer 13-5 and Cortland 11-0. Now, for Watertown, the Red Devils turned to Jason Dalton for the pitching assignment, then gave him lots of help.
The game was 0-0 when, in the top of the third inning, VVS struck for three runs. Briefly, Watertown answered, pulling within 3-2 on Kyle Simmons’ two-run home run.
That would be it, though, as Dalton, along with reliever Mitch Iseneker, limited the Cyclones to a total of five hits. And Iseneker would help VVS pull away, too, with his work at the plate.
In the top of the fifth, the Red Devils had another three-run rally, then got four more runs in the seventh to pull far away as Iseneker smacked a home run and finished with three RBIs.
Oneida looked for the same kind of success, only to find that Whitesboro, who had stunned top-seed CBA 5-4 in the quarterfinals, was still on a roll.
They traded runs in the first inning, Nate Mallinder putting the Indians on the board when he hit a solo home run.
But Whitesboro seized control for good in the top of the third, getting to Oneida pitcher Dylan VanDresar for five runs to go ahead 6-1. VanDresar blanked the Warriors the rest of the way, but it wouldn’t matter.
Mallinder and Brian Chevier each had two hits, with both of Chevier’s hit going for doubles. Those were four of the seven hits the Indians got off Whitesboro pitchers Ryan Watson and Matt Engler, with Watson improving to 4-1 as Oneida’s season concluded with a 15-8 mark.
