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Schalmont vs. Johnstown: Sabres subdue Sir Bills, 6-1
TROY — Schalmont pitcher Matt Capovani’s night didn’t get off to a good start against Johnstown in the Section II Class BB baseball championship game.
It began with a walk to leadoff hitter Ryan Autry. Then, Capovani hit Dan Nellis with a pitch.
“I was a little nervous,” the junior right-hander said. “I was getting the nerves out of me. I just needed to settle down. Eventually, I did.”
Capovani retired the next three batters, and took control from there as the Sabres won their second straight sectional title with a 6-1 victory over the Sir Bills at Joseph L. Bruno Stadium.
The Sabres (22-1) will face Colonial Council-rival Fonda-Fultonville in the Class BB/B championship game Saturday at 1 p.m. at the Plumeri Sports Complex.
Capovani gave up a run on two hits. He had the curveball working well. Capovani struck out 12 and walked four. He struck out the side in the fourth.
“Going into those first three innings, I was just overthrowing,” Capovani said. “I settled down in the fourth inning. I was just using mechanics and stuff. I was good from there.”
Capovani took a shutout into the seventh. That was broken up when pinch-runner Derek Gray scored on a wild pitch.
Capovani was one out away from getting a complete game before coach Bob Anderson lifted him after he walked Autry for the third time. Greg Musk came in and struck out Dan Nellis to end the game.
“I was a little disappointed, but what can you do,” Capovani said. “I did as good as I could.”
Anderson said Capovani did more than well.
“He was a little nervous. He admitted it coming off of the mound,” Anderson said. “Matty usually takes an inning to get going. But once he got into that groove, he was dynamite tonight.”
Capovani had to be sharp because Sir Bills starter Grant Gyldenvand didn’t give up a hit through four innings. But Johnstown’s defense made four errors.
Gyldenvand made one of the errors, bobbling Jake Defayette’s grounder to start the third inning. After a walk to Anthony Yezzo, Nick Bird’s bunt attempt was caught by first baseman Richie Lee for the first out.
Musk then hit a slow grounder to the right side. Second baseman Nellis charged the ball. After fielding it, his throw eluded Lee, allowing Defayette to score.
A one-out throwing error by Sir Bills shortstop Matt Szurek allowed Yezzo to reach base in the fifth. After stealing second, Yezzo scored on a two-out single.
“When you do that in a game against a team that is good [like Schalmont] and takes advantage of those errors, you put yourself in that hole that’s tough to build out of,” Johnstown coach Aaron Mraz said.
The Sabres put the game way with a four-run sixth. Singles by John Pascarella and Joe Wignot put runners at the corners and ended Gyldenvand’s night. Autry replaced Gyldenvand, and he struck out Kevin Paskevich. A walked to Chris Hamilton loaded the bases. With the infield in, Kaelan Meers lofted an single over Nellis’ glove for a 3-0 lead.
Wignot scored on a bunt, Nick Byrd had a sacrifice fly and Meers scored on a wild pitch.
When the final out was recorded, the Sabres celebrated quietly.
“We’ve set some goals at the beginning of the season, and we have to take it to the next step,” Anderson said. “We got to the regional final last year. We lost a tough game in nine innings. We’re not there yet. And we have to play the extra playoff game on Saturday against a Fonda team right from our league, and then we have to go win another regional game just to get to the [state] final four.”
Johnstown 000 000 1 — 1 2 4
Schalmont 001 014 x — 6 5 0
Gyldenvand, Autry (6) and Caputo; Capovani. Musk (7) and Yezzo
Class AA Baseball: Shen's Warzek sharp
TROY — Bryan Warzek was the picture of efficiency Saturday night.
The Shenendehowa left-hander threw a one-hitter and struck out 11 as the defending champion Plainsmen beat Niskayuna, 5-0, in their Class AA baseball semifinal at Joseph L. Bruno Stadium.
The Plainsmen will play CBA in the championship game back here on Friday in a 7 p.m. start. The game will be the only sectional final matching the top two seeds.
Warzek allowed only a third-inning single to Niskayuna shortstop Pat O’Brien, and promptly picked him off. Warzek walked two and threw 105 pitches, 73 for strikes.
Niskayuna had just four batters reach base.
“I set a pace and didn’t stop. I like to pitch fast,” said Warzek, who got eight of his strikeouts on called third strikes. “One thing that you’re supposed to do as a hitter is break up the pitcher’s rhythm, but they let me just roll through.”
Left fielder Brennan McCormack got the big hit, a two-out, two-run single in the fourth inning that broke the scoreless tie. He enjoyed watching Warzek work.
“The game goes quick,” McCormack said. “You’ve always got to be ready. If you look in the stands, the pitch is already gone.”
Niskayuna starter Tommy Favata worked out of bases-loaded spots in the first and third innings before 21-1 Shen finally broke through in beating Niskayuna for the third time this season.
“I was hoping that because they weren’t scoring that many runs recently, maybe we’d get a 1-0, 2-0 game and pull it off,” said Niskayuna coach John Furey.
Favata escaped trouble in the first inning when he got John Novenche to fly out to right with two outs and the bases loaded. Center fielder Garrett Whitley unleashed a one-hop throw to the plate on Josh Hayner’s single, Shen’s third base hit of the inning, to hold Justin Yurchak at third base.
Warzek, who struck out the side in the first inning, gave Niskayuna a great chance in the second when he threw Carmen Caruso’s one-out comebacker past first baseman Novenche and down the right-field line, allowing Caruso to reach third base. He struck out Chris Wilk, then got Mike Gabriele to roll out to Novenche to keep the game scoreless.
Favata worked his escape act again in the third, and once again, he retired Novenche with the bases loaded to end the inning.
His luck ran out in the fourth, when McCormack lined an 0-1 fastball into left field to score Connor Douglas and Matt Bloise. Douglas had led off the inning with a walk, and Bloise singled him to second with one out. Favata then balked, pushing both runners into scoring position.
“We needed to get the offense going at some point. I knew when we got one across, we were going to roll, and that’s what we did,” McCormack said.
“I just wanted to hit the ball through the infield somehow, and I got a good pitch to hit.”
Warzek responded by striking out the bottom three hitters in the Niskayuna lineup in order in the Silver Warriors’ fifth, all on called third strikes, on 13 pitches.
“I knew this team can hit a fastball, but I did a good job keeping the ball down in the zone, and they couldn’t do much with the low fastball,” Warzek said.
The Plainsmen chased Favata in the fifth when Douglas laced a one-out double to left-center, moving pinch-runner Zach Sargent to third. Brian Toy came on to pitch, and got Brad Pearson to ground to second baseman Taylor Parks, but Parks threw wildly to the plate, allowing Sargent to score.
Kyle McAlonie made it 4-0 with a sacrifice fly that scored Douglas.
“Tommy had his pitches in order and he was throwing them, pretty well, then it got away from him a little bit,” said Furey.
The Plainsmen added a run in the sixth, after again loading the bases with one out.
CBA got a two-run single from Alex Koshgarian in the bottom of the sixth inning to get past Columbia, 8-6. in the other semi.The Brothers jumped out to 5-0 lead after two innings, but Columbia pulled into a 6-6 tie with a run in the top of the fifth. Koshgarian delivered his two-run single the following inning.
SHENENDEHOWA 5, NISKAYUNA 0
Niskayuna 000 000 0 — 0 1 2
Shenendehowa 000 221 x — 5 9 2
Favata, B.Toy (5) and Spataro; Warzek and Pearson.
CBA 8, COLUMBIA 6
Columbia 001 410 0 — 6 7 2
CBA 230 102 x — 8 9 5
Sowards, Faas (2) and Walter; Wilson, Mitchell (4) and Herald.
