Batavia's younger players are coming into their own just at the right time, said head baseball Coach Rick Saunders -- just as the Blue Devils enter sectional playoffs.
The team won a first-round playoff game Tuesday at Dwyer Stadium over Greece Olympia, 12-5.
"They struggled with the bats the first time they’d seen varsity pitching and now we’ve won five out of our last six," Saunders said.
The Blue Devils jumped to a quick 7-1 lead in the first two innings Tuesday, but then Greece Olympia made it look like they might make a game of it with four runs in the fifth.
But Saunders said his #5 seeded team responded well against the #12 seed, rallying for five runs in the bottom half of the sixth inning.
"(There were) two positive things," Saunders said. "When you play a team that’s a lower seed than you, you have to jump out to an early lead. Then you need to tack on runs to put them away, and when they made their come back to get back in the game, we tacked on five in the sixth to put them away. That’s how you win big games. That was the key."
Batavia (13-7) will face Greece Arcadia in a round two game at 4:30 p.m., Friday, in Greece Aracadia. The winner of that game will play a semi-final game next Tuesday against either Pittsford-Sutherland, the #1 seed, or Geneva.
In the game, Tommy Prospero was 2-3 with a walk and two stolen bases. Ryan DiMartino was 2-4 with a double and two RBIs. Zach Hale, who was also the winning pitcher, going 4 1/3 innings, was 2-4.
Saunders likes his team's chances of advancing.
"We’ve played all these teams," Saunders said. "Our pitchers have got to throw strikes. It’s basic baseball, pitchers throw strikes and if we can play good defense we can play with anybody. When we've that this year, we've won. When we haven't, we've struggled."
In other Section V baseball today, Alexander plays Warsaw in Warsaw; #2 seed Pembroke plays Bishop Kearney in Pembroke; Pavilion plays Canisteo-Greenwood in Pavilion; #2 seed Oakfield-Alabama plays Cuba-Rushford in Oakfield; Le Roy plays Granada in Le Roy; and on Friday, Notre Dame plays Prattsburgh at Dwyer Stadium.
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