eNewspaper: It’s like the paper, only paperless.
Get a replica of the paper on your digital doorstep with eNewspaper.
Times Telegram
BINGHAMTON ― Oriskany’s Skyhawks earned another shot at New York’s Class D baseball championship with a 5-2 semifinal victory at SUNY-Binghamton Friday, June 13.
The Skyhawks (18-1), beaten 4-0 by Arkport/Canaseraga in the 2024 title game on the same field, defeated Fillmore, another Section V school, behind junior right-hander Eddie Wright and a big seventh inning Friday.
“This is where we wanted to be,” Oriskany coach Eric Enos said. “It feels awesome.”
Oriskany plays again Saturday, June 14 at Mirabito Stadium against North Warren (15-5-1), the Section II champion and a 5-2 winner over Long Island’s Smithtown Christian in Friday’s first semifinal. The winner of Saturday’s 4 p.m. final will be a first-time state champion.
“We’re on a work trip,” Enos said as his team celebrated in the dugout as a light rain from late in the game intensified. “When we get back to the hotel, it’s back to business.”
“This is what we’ve looked for since Day 1, the first practice,” Wright added. “We’re going back (to the final).”
The Skyhawks scored first Friday and never trailed, a change of pace for a team that had allowed its previous three playoff opponents to score first and needed extra innings to get a lead -― and eventual victory ― in regional play last weekend against Section IV Elmira-Notre Dame.
The lower half of the order gave Oriskany its initial 1-0 lead in the second inning. Jack Mason drew a two-out walk, and Chase Koenig and Dawson Foss followed with the Skyhawks’ first hits. Mason scored on the single by Foss, and that run would hold up as a lead until the sixth inning.
Oriskany added a second run in the fifth. Foss, the No. 8 hitter, led off with a single and scored on a two-out error.
Wright shut down the Eagles (17-10). Tyler Voss had singled and stolen second base as Fillmore’s first batter in the first inning, and the team went hitless after that until the bottom of the sixth.
Wright struck out eight batters and walked four while allowing three hits. He has pitched 24 of the team’s last 25 innings, starting with a three-inning relief appearance in the Section III semifinals.
“He’s our hot hand right now,” Enos said of the pitching selection for the semifinal. “We had to win this (game) to get to the next one. … He pitched great. He battled, and the defense backed him up.”
Fillmore scored in the sixth inning and Oriskany took a 2-1 lead into the seventh. Leadoff hitter Nick Hays reached base with a one-out infield hit, then went from first base to third when a throw got away as he stole second. Wright singled Hays home, and Sean Graziano circled the bases one out later with a two-run inside-the-park home run on a fly ball to right-center.
The first two Fillmore batters reached base to start the bottom of the seventh, and one scored as Wright retired the next three to close out the game.