Baseball: Adirondack falls in state Class C semifinals to Chatham
BINGHAMTON – Frank Sinatra’s iconic song, “New York, New York” blared over the loudspeakers when Phil Puleo spoke to his team a final time.
The song celebrates the state, and for the first time in 40 years, Puleo and his Adirondack baseball team made it to “there.”
To Binghamton, more exactly, where New York’s best high school baseball teams are celebrated.
Two games away from being a “king of the hill,” the Wildcats’ magical run came to an end.
The Wildcats (13-12) fell to Chatham (26-1) 5-0 Friday night at the Binghamton University Baseball Stadium on the campus of BU in the Class C State Semifinals.
Here are some takeaways:
A pitcher’s duel early
Puleo said, before the game, Boonville pulled out all the stops and honored the team with a send-off before they headed to Binghamton.
Many fans, however, followed the squad to BU on their nearly 150-mile journey to the Southern Tier.
In the biggest game of the season and a large contingency behind them, Puleo handed the ball to ace Colin White for the fourth straight game.
White admitted he felt nerves when the game started, but it failed to show.
He mowed down Chatham’s lethal lineup for the first three innings, only acquiescing a walk in the third.
However, he experienced trouble in the fourth. Matt Thorsen, the Panthers do-it-all shortstop, led off the inning with a single and then used his baserunning to force White into two pickoffs, both of which resulted in errors as Thorsen moved to third.
“That’s something we haven’t done a lot of this year,” Puleo said. “Their best base runner was on, so we knew we had to keep them close, and maybe we pushed a little too much.”
The next batter, Cameron Horton, grounded out, but it didn’t matter as Thorsen scored.
On the other side, Tyler Kneller got the start for Chatham, ranked No. 2 in the state according to Maxpreps.
Adirondack started something in the second as Jake Khouri and Bailey Gleasman went to second and third with no outs.
But, as he eventually did throughout the game, Kneller removed Chatham from trouble. Chris Strobel attempted a sacrifice bunt with two outs, but Kneller threw him out at first.
Two innings later, Khouri tripled to center to begin the inning and loaded the bases with two outs. Kneller then struck out Alex Kaun.
Kreedon Rogers singled in the fifth and shortly after stole his way to third, but even with stars like White and Brett Sanford up, the ‘Cats fizzled out again.
“He threw well and kept them in the whole game,” Puleo said. “He kept us off balance, so I got to tip my hat to him.”
Game blows open in the seventh
Despite Adirondack’s struggles at the plate, White kept the Panthers at bay, helped by his defense.
In the fifth, left fielder Gabe Cihocki, who drove in the winning run against Lansing, made a sensational catch but ran shoulder-first into the wall.
He winced in pain for a minute or two before getting up.
“We said, ‘are you going to run through a wall for us’ and he did,” Puleo said. “When I went out there, he told me not to take him out.”
In the seventh, holes started to crack. Michael Pierro doubled to begin the inning.
Eventually, Chatham put ducks on all three ponds before Vinnie Marasco blew the game open with two outs. He blasted a shot into left center, hitting a grand salami on a 3-2 count and pushing the margin for ADK from one to five.
Puleo said, since the count stood at 3-2, Chatham squeezed White, and he was forced to throw it down the middle.
“He got us there, and before then he only allowed two hits,” Puleo said regarding potentially pulling White. “We’d probably go to Weiler or Sanford, but we put it in his hands.”
Adirondack appeared dispirited heading into the bottom of the seventh.
“There were a couple of times they were just down, and we had to bring ourselves up,” he said. “But it is tough, it’s a grind.”
White said the team never quit believing though.
“We thought we were still in it, we just couldn’t get the runners through,” he said.
Kneller abandoned Adirondack in the seventh, and White struck out looking to end the season.
After the game, White said he regretted not swinging.
A memorable season for Adirondack
Overall, it remained an incredibly remarkable season for the Wildcats, which started 0-5 and ended the regular season 8-11 before this mythical run to states.
“When you are in tears after the game, that means you left it all out there,” Puleo said. “It’s a great year, and there’s nothing to hang their head on. They set the bar.”
Puleo even said many members of the team, including him, will return Monday for American Legion baseball.
What’s next
Chatham faces Chester from Section IX in the state title game at Mirabito Stadium Saturday at 1 p.m.
Noah Ram is a sports reporter for the Observer-Dispatch. Email Noah Ram at nram@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Observer-Dispatch: Adirondack baseball falls to Chatham in NYSPHSAA Class C semifinals
