Published: May 15, 2008 11:06 pm            

HS BASEBALL: Lancers grind out big win over N-W

LEWISTON — Lewiston-Porter coach Mark Waple says his team is just a bunch of “grinders” that never give in. Thursday was a prime example.

The Lancers dug themselves a 6-1 hole after the second inning, but battled all the way back behind the pitching of Rob Daggett to earn a key 8-7 Niagara Frontier League win over host Niagara-Wheatfield. The win also puts the Lancers (11-7 overall, 8-4 NFL) in second place in the league standings with only two games remaining. Wheatfield dropped to 7-5 in league play.

“We have a history of getting off to slow starts, but there have been quite a few games where we have whittled away and been right there at the end and today was another one of those games,” Waple said. “It’s really a testament to these guys.”

Trailing into the fourth, Lew-Port finally got the offense going with three singles, a double and four walks. Jared Flock had a sacrifice fly, but the big blows came from Josh Sorenson and Aaron Coney. Sorenson ripped a two-run single up the middle to get Lew-Port within one and then Coney tied it up at six with an RBI double to left. Both Sorenson and Coney came around to score on consecutive wild pitches from Ben Collins to give the Lancers an 8-6 lead.

From there, Lew-Port right-hander Rob Daggett took control, allowing only one run the rest of the way. He worked out of a bases-loaded jam in the fifth inning and dodged a huge bullet in the sixth when N-W’s Chris Gruarin cracked a ball to the edge of the tree line, which dropped into Flock’s glove just inches away from the brush.

“That would’ve been gone at Washuta (Park),” Daggett said of the bomb. “I rely on Flock out there, though. He’s my right-hand man.”

N-W catcher Mike Hardy singled to open the bottom of the seventh and advanced to third, but would get no further as Daggett would retire the next three batters. The senior hurler allowed six hits and struck out six in the win.

“I started using my curveball because my cutter kept going in the dirt early on,” Daggett said. “Then I started getting ground balls and stopped walking so many people.”

N-W’s big outburst came in the second when it scored six runs. Reese Bedient had an RBI sacrifice fly and Carl Graff added an RBI single, but most of the damage was due to four walks, three errors, a wild pitch and a passed ball. After that inning, though, N-W could not muster much of anything beside an RBI single from Eric Cosgrove in the fifth.

“We had our big inning and then our bats fell asleep,” N-W coach Jim Hagerty said. “Then they had their big inning and we just couldn’t respond.”

Paul Smith had two hits for N-W, while Coney and Tyler Magliazzo had two apiece for the Lancers. Daggett also reached base four times and Matt Cattarin walked three times.

Contact reporter Nate Beutel at 282-2311, ext. 2262.

        

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