Wellsville baseball drops two fierce Spring Break battles in Cortland, as Section IV heavyweights Trumansburg, Cortland outlast Lions in offensive slugfests to hand team 1st 2 losses

CORTLAND — With the ladies down in South Carolina soaking up the sun, a la Sheryl Crow, it was the Lions of Wellsville’s turn to make their return to the diamond for Spring Break action of their own after over a week away from action.

The bus ride was taken up to the Finger Lakes region and the Cortland Gutchess Lumber Complex early Wednesday afternoon, where they met with two of Section IV’s mightiest foes — the Trumansburg Blue Raiders, and the Cortland Purple Tigers.

Two battles against two offensive juggernauts.

Two battles that ultimately saw Wellsville remain fastened in the passenger’s seat at first, but at the same time, more than within reach of their opposition each step of the way. But when the final pitch was thrown in each contest, their late efforts down the stretch to close the gap in the fullness of time proved to be too much to overcome, as both Trumansburg and Cortland persevered to hand the Lions their first two losses of the campaign in 12-5 and 14-8 decisions, respectively on Thursday.

In game one early in the morning against the Blue Raiders, it saw Trumansburg run rampant across the first two innings of play, using a combination of hits and special teams around the bases to plate six consecutive runs for a firm advantage. The Lions (4-2) however, responded with a big frame of their own in the third, getting four of those runs back off four big RBI — two off back-to-back RBI singles from Aiden Cowburn and Ty Vogel, and an RBI each from Anthony Button and Andrew Ordiway.

Each team traded a run across one full inning at the plate, with the Lions trimming the Trumansburg advantage back down to a pair by way of a Matt Ritter RBI triple. But that would be as close as the team in orange and black got to the Blue Raiders, as they proceeded to scratch the game’s final five runs across in the bottom of the fifth to lock up the victory.

Following a mid-afternoon lunch break, Wellsville returned to the field looking for a strong finish against Cortland, as the two foes each traded a scoreless first inning to start the final game of the afternoon. The frame also included a big exit from an early jam from Vogel on the mound with two base-runners on and one out, as he fanned two Purple Tigers batters to keep both bags occupied.

But Cortland would ultimately crack the scoreboard first with a 3-0 lead, despite Vogel continuing to shove two more strikeouts amidst another offensive threat from their opposition, as they garnered a big two-run knock to propel the icebreaking top of the second inning.

Later on, Wellsville matched that response from the Purple Tigers, as they scavenged three runs of their own — two off the bat of Ritter, who drove a monsterous triple straight into deep center field before he was brought in moments later on Trent Green’s RBI single to tie the game.

Both teams went on to share scoreless pleasantries through the fourth inning of business before Cortland started to kick the engine into maximum overdrive down the stretch, catching fire from all angles at the plate to score 11 straight runs against the Lions, including a six-pack in the top of the seventh to branch their advantage into double digit territory.

Despite the heavy deficit, Wellsville did not show any signs of quitting, as they fired right back with a five-run bottom of the seventh inning, using a bundle of wild pitches with multiple runners in scoring position to key the late jaunt. Cortland was able to hang on aside from the final burst of pressure from the Lions, freezing them at the plate soon after to prevent any further damage from being applied to the scoreboard.

Further statistics on both contests were not made available to report upon publication.

The Lions are back home to the Den to resume festivities on Monday, as they play host to the Wayland-Cohocton Eagles at 5 p.m.

Game 1

Wellsville 004 010 0 — 5

Trumansburg 330 150 X — 12

Game 2

Cortland 030 023 6 — 14

Wellsville 003 000 5 — 8