TROY, N.Y. — There’s something about a Game 3, winner-take-all matchup that seems not to rattle the Shenendehowa High School varsity baseball team.
“A three-game series really tells you who you are,” said Plainsmen head coach Greg Chrsitodulu on Sunday night under the turned-out lights of Joe Bruno Stadium.
In the past two seasons, a Game 3, winner-take-all in the Sectional Final has certainly told the Plainsmen at least one thing: they can handle the pressure.
“We are definitely better when we have more pressure on us,” Shenendehowa centerfielder Evan Kochanskyj said, “It just comes down to belief in yourself.’”
With a 9-4 victory over Saratoga Springs in Sunday night’s Section 2 Class AAA Finals Game 3, Shenendehowa won the best-of-three series, 2-1, for the second-straight season and hoisted the title plaque at ‘The Joe.’
“It’s a dream come true; I don’t know any other way to put it,” said Kochanskyj, who went 3-4 in the win. “It’s just amazing. I’m so blessed to be able to do this again.”
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After the Blue Streaks took Game 1 on the back of a seventh-inning comeback to win, 4-1, the Plainsmen offense came to life with the season on the line. In Game 2, the Plainsmen posted 10 runs, all between the sixth and seventh innings, for a 10-3 victory.
The top seed in Class AAA picked up right where it had left off to start Game 3, with a four-run bottom first and two more runs in each of the next frames. Ian Oehschlaeger started the scoring with a two-run double, followed by a groundout from starting pitcher Brad Curtis and another double from Ryan Cronin, to take a quick, 4-0 lead going into the second inning.
“Game 3 at, ‘The Joe.’ If we weren’t riled up to win this one? I don’t know what one we were going to be riled up to win,” said Curtis, postgame. “We just came out followed the program and it worked for us.”
“We had a great round of batting practice today, guys swung the bat really well, I said, ‘geez, if we can carry that in and square some pitches up, I think we’re going to open up some things,’” added Christodulu, “then, when you get the four-run lead, you can really feel a little relieved. Still a lot of baseball ahead of you. You still got to come out and play seven innings, but it gave us some breathing room, which was good.”
In the bottom of the second, Kochanskyj and Oehlschlaeger both reached on singles and would come around to score on the same wild pitch, with Curtis back at the plate.
“We just talked before the games and we just knew we had to bring the energy in the next two games,’” Kochanskyj said on the offensive breakout since Game 1. “It’s unbelievable. I’m speechless.”
Saratoga Springs went to starting pitcher Alexander Landau for Game 3 after Louis Betit (Game 2) and Christian Mello (Game 1) had begun the series on the bump. Landau would finish his night after just the two innings of work.
“Alex is a competitor. Unfortunately, tonight wasn’t his night, but he’s had some starts for us and some of our other pitchers were injured and he was next man up,” Saratoga Springs head coach Andy Cutbertson said postgame. “Although he hadn’t had a ton of starts until tonight, we were comfortable and confident in him. It just wasn’t his night.”
The Blue Streaks got to Curtis in the top of the third, via an RBI single from catcher Camden Rhude and a two-run single from third-baseman Jack Rigabar. Four of Saratoga Springs’ nine hits for the ballgame came in just that inning, to go down 6-3.
“Well, I think the biggest stat that sticks out in my head: In Game 2, we left 18 guys on base. So, that’s going to be one that haunts us and that we loaded the bases six out of seven innings and could have grabbed the game too and momentum there,” Cuthbertson said. “But, baseball is a funny game sometimes and you don’t always get rewarded for being the best team.”
Shenendehowa responded in the bottom of the third, to go back up 8-3, with a two-run single from Kochanskyj.
“It’s all about confidence. That’s all,” said Kochanskyj. “You just got to trust your feelings and see the ball, hit the ball.”
Curtis would only allow one more run on the mound through his five innings of work for Shenendehowa, on seven hits, four walks, and three strikeouts.
“Just trust the plan laid out by the coaches, trust my teammates,” Curtis said on taking the ball in the Plainsmen’s biggest game of the season. “We’ve worked so hard to get here and there was only one way to finish it off. That was to come out with a win.”
With Curtis in line for the win, after Kochanskyj added another RBI to his total for a 9-4 advantage on the scoreboard, Collin Barry came in to close it out for the Plainsmen in the final two innings, allowing just one hit, with three strikeouts.
“He’s a grinder and he’s an amazing teammate as well,” Curtis said of Barry. “He just goes in every day, puts his work in, no matter the situation and he got it done today, like he always does.”
With a final strikeout from Barry, Shenendehowa celebrated its second-straight Section 2 Championship with a dog-pile just behind the pitcher’s mound.
The series win marked title No.6 for Christodulu on the coaching staff of the Plainsmen and by his count, the tenth total for the program. However, the celebration won’t go on too long.
“We’ll celebrate tonight, but we’re back to work on Tuesday, keeping our tunnel vision ahead and just focusing on the next game and the first pitch of the next game and winning that first inning,” said Curtis towards the ensuing NYSPHSAAA Championship Tournament.
“Someday we can look back on it and scratch our head and say, ‘Wow, we did some good things,’” added Christodulu, “but right now we gotta get ready for the Section III Champions.”
The Plainsmen will next play on Saturday, June 1, at Onondaga Community College in the Class AAA State Regional Championship, at 6 p.m.
Saratoga Springs will now head into a second consecutive offseason on the bitter end of a Game 3 in the Sectional Final. Cuthbertson still believes in the bigger picture of what his group and its’ seniors have accomplished for the program and community.
“I mean, every coach hates this part of the season, when you got to say goodbye to the kids. But, I told the seniors before the game that they’re such a special group. Some of them have been with me for three and four years and the goal is to always leave the program in better shape than you found it. I couldn’t ask for a better group of kids and to leave the program in a better place than they found it,” Cuthbertson said.
“I look forward to what these young men, especially our seniors, go out and do in their lives and I look forward to them coming back and visiting the ballpark and seeing what they’ve accomplished,” he added. “Just kudos to them for making this team what it was like, to leave it in a better place than they found it, and for being role models for the younger kids in our community.”
