Horseheads captures STAC West baseball title with second win over Corning in a week

A lengthy, sometimes testy, often sloppy Southern Tier Athletic Conference West Division tiebreaker was finally settled down by Horseheads senior Alex Chrisman, who retired all six batters he faced to close out the Blue Raiders' 8-5 win over Corning on Wednesday.

Horseheads (13-4) beat Corning (14-4) for the second time in a week and won a second consecutive West Division title. Both teams finished the regular season with 10-1 STAC records.

The Blue Raiders have won 10 straight since returning from their trip to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

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The game lasted 3 hours, 5 minutes and the sun had nearly set behind the Hawks batters as Chrisman took care of business in a quick final inning at Corning-Painted Post High School.

Horseheads coach Jeff Limoncelli was ejected in the third inning on a day in which both sides often expressed displeasure with the strike zone. There were 14 walks allowed, including 11 combined from Corning aces Aidan Chamberlin and Landen Burch.

"It’s not easy to come here. You face probably the best player in New York in my opinion. I think Chamberlin is outstanding," Limoncelli said. "He didn’t have his good stuff today. We took advantage of it.

"We got guys on base, we were aggressive and we had some timely hitting. We forced some mistakes and that’s what you have to do. These are the games with two good teams, the kids know how to play, and whoever makes the least mistakes usually has a good chance of winning and today we made the least mistakes."

Talking title

As a freshman, Riley Loomis was part of the 2019 team that won division and conference tournament titles. He bookended his high school career with another West crown.

"Not having them for a couple years and then coming back this year to beat these guys for the STAC title is pretty cool," he said.

Chrisman is another senior veteran.

"It’s a great feeling," he said. "This is what we want. It’s the first step all year is to get this, STAC West champs. Came out facing a good pitcher, Chamberlin, and we went up there with great approaches and got it done."

Keys for Horseheads

Horseheads scored three runs in the third inning and four in the fourth to break a 4-4 tie against Chamberlin, a nemesis over the years. Last year he struck out 11 in five scoreless innings to beat the Raiders in the Section 4 Class AA final.

Horseheads leadoff batter Jackson Cook reached base three times, including two walks. He stole two bases and scored twice.

Horseheads stole six bases. Three Raiders came home on wild pitches or passed balls and three more scored on errors. Chrisman and Gavin Wert had RBI singles.

"It’s all about taking advantage of passed balls, dirt-ball reads," Chrisman said. "Take advantage of those and that’s how you get runs."

Facing pair of aces

Chamberlin was let down by defense and control, with five walks hurting him in his four innings. Five of the eight runs he allowed were unearned.

"We definitely tried to attack him early and not let him get in his counts because he’s a great pitcher and if you get in bad counts he’ll torture you," Chrisman said. "We got in good counts and did good things."

Said Loomis: "We've been prepping all week. Sitting, waiting for fastball and not chasing the curveball. I think it really paid off today with all the practice this week."

Burch came in and held Horseheads scoreless over the final three innings despite walking six batters. Six strikeouts helped.

Chrisman at top of his game

Corning sent the top of the order against Chrisman in the sixth inning. He got Chamberlin on a fly ball to center field, Will Kibler on a liner to third base and Burch on a fly ball to center.

Two strikeouts in the seventh were followed by a game-ending ground ball.

"I felt good," Chrisman said. "I know they’re a great offense, so I had to hit my spots and luckily I was able to do that today and come out on top."

Dylan Ribble, who struck out 10 in 6⅓ innings in last week's 6-4 win over Corning, labored in the rematch. He was knocked out in the third inning and replaced by freshman Mason Holloway, who gave up one run on three hits in 2 1/3 innings.

"We wanted to go a little bit more with Ribble, but he got in a pretty tough pitch count, he tired out a little bit," Limoncelli said. "So we wanted to bridge the gap with a freshman who’s proved he can give me an inning or so. Then our plan was six and seven with Chrisman. It doesn’t always work out that way, but it worked out. He’s a senior, wanted the ball and went in there and did what he had to do. I was proud of him."

Corning offensive standouts

Chamberlin continued his torrid spring by leading off the bottom of the first with a mammoth homer over the fence in left field. It was his fifth homer of the season. He added a triple and a walk, scoring three runs.

Kibler and Carter Rosno each went 2-for-4 for Corning.

Quotable

Limoncelli watched the remainder of the game from the edge of the parking lot behind the fence down the third-base line. He joined his players for a quick celebration in shallow left field after the win.

His ejection leads to an automatic one-game suspension. Horseheads is scheduled to host Waverly on Thursday before playing in the STAC tournament.

"You can’t argue balls and strikes and I did," Limoncelli said. "I didn’t think I did enough to warrant (the ejection), but that was his decision and I have to accept that and that’s it."

STAC final four Saturday

The STAC semifinals and championship game will be played Saturday at Mirabito Stadium in Binghamton.

Union-Endicott faces Windsor at 10 a.m. Horseheads takes on Owego at 1 p.m. The championship follows at 4.

"It’s a great feeling," Chrisman said. "We get to go down to Binghamton and play in the Rumble Ponies’ stadium. It’s amazing."

Horseheads won the most recent STAC tournament title with a 2-0 victory over Vestal in 2019. There was no season in 2020 because of COVID and last year there were no STAC champs crowned in a condensed season.

"I’m happy for our kids," Limoncelli said. "I’ve got six seniors who get to go to the stadium – Mirabito Stadium – and get to play there. We’re a hot team right now. We’re just going to try to keep it going."

Follow Andrew Legare on Twitter: @SGAndrewLegare. You can also reach him at alegare@gannett.com. To get unlimited access to the latest news, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

This article originally appeared on Elmira Star-Gazette: Horseheads beats Corning in a STAC West baseball tiebreaker