STATES BOUND: Adirondack defeats Lansing to advance to Binghamton; Morrisville-Eaton falls

Two Mohawk Valley high school baseball teams took the field Saturday with their seasons on the line in the Regional Final.

Only one, the Adirondack Wildcats, saw their season continue into states next weekend in Binghamton.

The other, the Morrisville-Eaton Warriors, fell and witnessed their season come to an end.

Here is a recap of both games.

Adirondack vs Lansing

Phil Poulio needed a minute to compose himself before speaking to the media.

Moments away, the Adirondack baseball coach showed more emotion than he probably had at any point this season.

He and his team weathered so much this season, from an 0-5 start, to a bid in the Sectional Tournament (as an 11 seed), to matchups with powerhouses such as Pulaski and Westmoreland.

Now, for the time being, they could all exhale and celebrate their biggest moment of their athletic career.

The Adirondack Wildcats earned a spot in states next weekend in Binghamton with a 2-1 win over Lansing Saturday evening at Onondaga Community College.

“When it gets to this point, it is more than us,” Poulio said. “It’s to the families, our team, our community.”

Here are some takeaways:

A real pitcher’s duel

Experts often say, to reach this point of the season in high school baseball, you need a stellar pitcher to put the team on their back.

Zach Sperger for Lansing and Colin White for Adirondack have done just that, and on Saturday, they also completely shut down each offense.

For five innings, the score stood at zero apiece. In addition, it felt as if almost every half inning flew by 1-2-3.

In the bottom of the second, Adirondack put some runners on base but could not gain any runs.

What made this possibly most surprising is both offenses were on fire heading into Saturday.

Lansing scored a combined 17 runs in its two Section IV Class C playoff games, and Adirondack totaled at least four in each of its sectional games.

White explained what it felt like on the mound, knowing he was pitching a great game but the offense failed to get going.

“You just have to stay calm and collected,” he said. “You need to be confident in your fielders on your team.”

Poulio said Sperger’s dominant curveball made it tough for Adirondack to get hits.

“We needed to get him when he got behind,” he said. “Even with Colin, we kept saying stay ahead because then your confidence is there. When pitchers are down, you get behind on batters.”

Poulio said White earned the starting job early in the season and never lost it.

“If you have your guy, you got to go with your guy,” he said. “We were lucky to have four-day rest, and his arm was good, so we went along. I think he gets better as the game goes on.”

There were few miscues on either side and no catastrophic mistakes, just a well-played game, which pleased Poulio in the biggest game of the season.

“Defense was clean, Colin was good, and we got to keep grinding. You got to keep it going to the next game,” he said. “When we say get to the next practice, and now we have a week of practice.”

Cracks began to develop in the sixth, though.

A game-changing sixth

The top of sixth started like other innings. White walked Lansing’s Ben Petrich, who advanced to second. With two outs, it appeared White would escape the inning, but then Carson Crandall singled to center, and the Bobcats controlled the lead.

White leaded off the bottom of the inning for Adirondack.

“I was thinking, just stay short to the ball, we need runners on,” White said. “Nothing too big.”

White smacked a liner to left, and then moved to second. With one out, Jake Khouri hit a grounder to short, but the shortstop threw to third instead of first. White slide safely, and no one was out.

Lansing paid for its mistake with the next batter, Bailey Gleasman. He popped a one-bagger and tied the game.

Two men later, Cihocki strode to the plate with two outs.

“I wasn’t nervous,” he said. “I knew I just had to hit the ball in play and move the runners.”

He did exactly that. Cihocki singled to center, scoring Khouri and the Wildcats took the lead.

A nerve-wracking seventh

Within a half-inning, Adirondack went from six outs away from its season ending to three outs away from a bid in states.

“We always had a plan. We would let Colin start, and Brett (Sanford) can be the next guy if needed,” he said. “It’s a tough feeling that last inning though because you know a good team like that could get going.”

White admitted he was jittery to start the seventh.

He kicked off the inning with a strikeout, but then walked a batter.

“It was pretty difficult (to keep my composure),” White said. “We were just thinking we got nothing to lose, but I was confident in my teammates making plays.”

The junior knocked out the next batter, his fifth of the game, and then forced Sperger to fly out in foul territory, and the Wildcats punched their ticket to Binghamton.

“We can’t be satisfied,” Poulio said. “It’s hard not to be, but you got to keep waiting (for) that next game.”

What’s next

The Wildcats will play Chatham at 7 p.m. Friday night at Binghamton University in the Class C state semifinals for the first time since 1986.

Morrisville-Eaton vs Deposit/Hancock

Mohawk Valley’s other remaining team, Morrisville-Eaton, traveled down the road to Endicott to face the Section IV Class D winner, Deposit/Hancock.

It left with a 4-1 season-ending defeat.

The Warriors rode the services of pitcher Nick Brady and that continued. The senior allowed three earned runs over six innings.

But Eagles hurler Caden Fortunato gave up just two hits, no earned runs and struck out 15. At the plate, he finished 2-3 with two doubles and two RBIs. Brady nabbed one of Morrisville’s two hits and scored its only run.

“I could not be more proud of the team, program and family for what was accomplished this year,” coach Cody Merkle said in a statement. “The three seniors that we are losing are a dedicated bunch, and we will truly miss their commitment and leadership.”

D/H will host Crown Point at Broome Community College in Binghamton at 2 p.m. Friday.

Noah Ram is a sports reporter for the Observer-Dispatch. Email Noah Ram at nram@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Observer-Dispatch: BINGHAMTON BOUND: Adirondack advanced to states for the first time since 1986 Saturday night