On another hot night at Maple City Park the Hornell Dodgers fell 8-2 to the Wellsville Nitros finishing off the regular season for both teams. The win brings the Nitros to 24-22 while the loss takes the Dodgers to 21-25 on the season.
The Nitros were first to put a run up on the board in the 1st. After the Nitros had loaded the bases, Cole Tracy (Finger Lakes CC) knocked in an RBI single to give the Nitros the early lead 1-0.
In the 4th the Nitros added another run to their lead. Nitros pitcher Brett Migliore helped his own cause knocking in an RBI on a single to right bringing their lead to 2-0.
The Nitros kept widening the gap again in the 5th when Harry Montero Jr. (Bloomfield) homered to straight away center taking their lead to 3-0 over the Dodgers.
The Nitros continued to build their lead in the 6th earning another three runs. Tyler Culpepper (Roane State CC) and Nicolas Varda (Ashland) both drove in an RBI a piece on back to back groundouts. Max Franzone (Dominican) rounded out the scoring with an RBI double widening the Nitros gap to 6-0.
The Dodgers finally got on the board in the bottom end of the 6th. Connor Brandon (Concordia-Chicago) capitalized on a Nitros wild pitch to score and cut into the Nitros lead 6-1.
The Nitros offense kept the runs coming in the 7th. Migliore continued to help his cause knocking in a two runs off a two out single to left.
In the bottom half of the 7th the Dodgers added a run of their own capitalizing on yet another Nitros wild pitch to score Andy Brahier (Wisconsin-Oshkosh) and taking the score to 8-2.
For the Dodgers Jack Trotman (St. John Fisher) was the only player with multiple hits going 2-4 at the plate on the night.
For the Nitros Migliore was perfect at the plate going 5-5 with three RBI’s while Tracy went 2-4 at the dish. Migliore also pitched a solid game on the mound putting eight innings. He allowed two runs on seven hits and two walks while striking out three.
The Dodgers are off tomorrow but will begin the first round of the NYCBL Western Division playoffs on Tuesday. They will be playing in Wellsville against the Nitros with first pitch being thrown out at 4 p.m. The winner of the one-game playoff will head to play #1 seed Olean in a best of three series beginning Wednesday in Olean.
