Wildcats win on walkoff

Updated: May 4, 2011 9:24PM

Most baseball people would ascertain that teams learn more from losing than they do from winning.

Standing three outs from putting away another relatively easy victory behind its sound pitching staff, adversity hit Neuqua Valley in the form of a three-run seventh inning from York to erase the advantage it had worked so hard to get over the course of 18 outs.

Refusing to wilt and bemoan on what could have been, the Wildcats did something about it by engineering a 6-5, walk-off victory over York Wednesday.

After shortstop Mike Bogar let a potential game-ending double play ball go through his legs and third baseman Tanner Giesel’s second error of the game allowed the Dukes to grab a 5-4 lead, Wildcats’ first baseman Andrew Skowronski, who went 2-for-3, began the bottom of the seventh with a bloop single to right.

Skowronski’s single prompted a pitching change and York reliever Greg Castello proceeded to walk both Bogar and Neuqua Valley center fielder Jack Amaro to load the bases with nobody out and bring left-fielder Nick Oleskowicz to the plate.

Mindful of the fact York’s infield was in to try and cut down the potential tying run at home, Skowronski, Oleskowicz lined a pitch right back up the box to center, bringing home the Wildcats’ 14th victory of the season.

“I was going straight up the middle with (the ball),” Oleskowicz said. “(Castello) has got like a looping (wind-up). I had been rolling over and stuff, so I was staying back and just thinking up the middle. Got a good pitch (to hit).”

Nick Blackburn earned the victory for Neuqua Valley (14-4-1) despite seeing his defense fail him a bit in the top of the seventh.

In three innings in relief of starter Alan Foresta, Blackburn (3-2) allowed two runs on three hits and struck out three, coming off the heels of Foresta’s solid four innings.

“We could have very easily dropped our heads, kicked the dirt,” Neuqua Valley coach Robin Renner said of the Dukes’ three-run seventh. “But they didn’t. They kept battling. They knew they had a chance to win and (assistant coach John Fumagalli) got them together and said, ‘how tough is it to get the tying run to the plate?’ We did and they did a really nice job.”

An error from Giesel was part of a two-run first inning for York as the Dukes grabbed a 2-0 lead off Foresta, but the Wildcats’ offense would respond with a three-run second, highlighted by a solo homer from Ryan O’Keefe and a RBI double to right from second baseman Drew Bailey.

Bogar’s fourth-inning RBI single off York starter Chris Jennings represented the game’s final scoring until the eventful seventh inning commenced.

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