(Penfield, NY) The Penfield Patriots JV baseball team returned home and kept its winning ways with another rock solid effort on the mound from Robbie Mabee who handcuffed the Brockport Eagles with a five inning, seven strikeout effort. Mabee scattered four hits and allowed a lone run before handing the ball over to P.J. Gerlach, who was equally effective in going two scoreless innings from the mound in relief. The offense was paced by a trio of Patriot batters – Trevor Quiel, Paul Watrobski, and Brian Chernak – with two hits apiece including a double each. Greg Travers also contributed with a pinch hit double in the sixth.
The offensive effort was again well distributed throughout the lineup with five different batters recording RBIs including two from Chernak. After Mabee fanned the side in the top half of the second inning, Anthony Flanagan drove in the first run of the game with an RBI single into short left field in the Pats’ half and Quiel followed with an RBI double.
The Eagles threatened in the top of the third, loading the bases on a leadoff single and a pair of walks. But Mabee wove two strikeouts in that sequence and induced a weakly hit ground ball in front of the plate that Zach Cicero easily converted into a force out at home. The Patriots went back on the offensive in the bottom half of that frame with Cicero sending Mabee across the plate for a run with a ground ball single up the middle and Brian Colombo driving in James Tantalo on a groundout to the shortstop.
Brockport finally broke through for a run in the fourth inning with a leadoff Texas league single into short right field and a sacrifice bunt moving that runner into scoring position. An error by the Penfield second baseman allowed the run to score. That would mark the virtual end of the Eagles’ offense on the day.
In the bottom of the fourth, the Pats manufactured two more runs. A leadoff single and stolen base by Quiel set the table for Chernak’s RBI double – and he later scored on a ground ball error through the wickets of the Eagles’ shortstop. Also in that inning, Watrobski had his streak of reaching base in eight consecutive plate appearances snapped with an inning-ending fielder’s choice.
Penfield tacked on the last run of the contest in the fifth as Quiel reached on a fielder’s choice groundout and again moved into scoring position with a stolen base. Chernak’s single sent Quiel home for the second consecutive inning.
Coach Marcin felt that “the guys played really well again. Brockport is a very good hitting team – they hit the ball hard early on in the game… so I thought our pitchers did a nice job of adjusting – changing speeds, changing locations, keeping them off balance.” Marcin also felt that his team is being very opportunistic. “We’re capitalizing on [other] teams’ mistakes – when teams do make errors against us, we seem to have a habit of producing runs off of [them], and we’re getting better about giving other teams less and less of the freebies.”
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