By Phil Blackwell

A pitcher who once toiled through cold spring afternoons on the diamonds of Central New York found himself on the mound in baseball’s ultimate clutch situation – and triumphed.

Patrick Corbin, who rose from Cicero-North Syracuse to Major League stardom, reached a new level of greatness when he pitched three scoreless innings of relief in the seventh game of the World Series to help lead the Washington Nationals to its first-ever championship as it defeated the Houston Astros 6-2.

In the long history of baseball in Washington, D.C., it’s only the second championship, to go with the one earned by the American League’s Washington Senators (now the Minnesota Twins) in 1924, a full 95 years ago.

Just as remarkable was the fact that the Nationals, in the course of the 2019 post-season, won five times in elimination games, and they trailed at one point in each of those games. Washington also became the first team to win four road games in a single World Series.

As big a role as Corbin played throughout his first season in Washington, it all was a prelude to what he did Wednesday night at Houston’s Minute Maid Park after starting pitcher Max Scherzer exited.

At the time, the Nationals trailed the Astros 2-0, but Houston had squandered many opportunities to have a larger lead, having stranded seven runners on base in Scherzer’s five innings on the mound.

Corbin surrendered a single in the bottom of the sixth, but coaxed a double play and then watched as the Nationals, as they had done many times before when facing elimination, staged a dramatic comeback.

Prior to the top of the seventh, Houston starter Zach Greinke had only allowed one hit. But Washington third baseman Anthony Rendon’s solo home run cut the Astros’ lead to 2-1.

Then, after 21-year-old sensation Juan Soto walked, Greinke was pulled for Will Harris, but Howie Kendrick, whose 10th-inning grand slam won the decisive game of the National League Division Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, hit a line drive off the right-field pole for a go-ahead two-run home run.

Now working with a 3-2 lead, Corbin continued to roll, tossing scoreless frames in the seventh and eighth innings. Meanwhile, the Nationals tacked on a run in the eighth on Soto’s RBI single, and break it open with two more runs in the top of the ninth driven home by Adam Eaton’s bases-loaded single.

All of it culminated a post-season where Corbin appeared in relief five times to go with his three starts, and was a key factor in all three clinching performances.

In the final game of the NLDS against the Dodgers, Corbin pitched 1 2/3 innings of scoreless relief. Then he struck out 12 over five innings in a starting role in the Nationals’ clincher of a four-game sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals in the National League Championship Series.

And it capped an extraordinary week for two of C-NS’s most famous alumni. Breanna Stewart, a four-time NCAA, Olympic and WNBA champion, was inducted on Monday night into the Greater Syracuse Sports Hall of Fame.