Warriors pick up win over Knights.
By: Chris Manning | Towanda Daily Review | May 5, 2012 | Photo courtesy Chris Manning
2012 NTL and District 4 News
CANTON - The last time Canton played Towanda, they took a lead all the way to the seventh only to have the Knights rally late and pull it out.
"We had a tough loss with them earlier in the season coming down to the last inning on a walk off hit," Canton's Emmett Watson said about their 3-2 loss.
This time things were different as the Warriors held on for a 4-1 win over Towanda in NTL East baseball action Friday.
"It's a big for the NTL, it keeps us in the race," Canton's Scott Rockwell remarked. "It's always good to beat Towanda, they're always one of our arch rivals other than Troy."
The script started out the same. The Warriors took a 1-0 lead after the first inning as Scott Rockwell singled, then stole second. Connor Route hit him with a single to put Canton up 1-0.
From there, the two pitchers took over.
Towanda's Mason Roof settled in and sat down the side in the second and third innings, getting four of the six outs himself with strikeouts. In the fourth, Ryan Ball got a single off him but that's all.
On the other side Warrior sophomore Garrett Wesneski was strong through three innings. He allowed just one base runner with an Austin Markel single in the second while striking out two.
Black Knight Casey Huff almost tied things up with a long shot to left field but Watson reached up at the fence and pulled it in for the final out of the inning.
"I think it probably would have been out," explained Emmett. "After I caught it, I hit my forearm off the top of the fence and I was just thankful I caught it because that would have cost us a run."
Watson had to check his glove to make sure it was still in there.
"It hit the very tip," he said. "I wasn't sure that I got it and I looked at it. I had so much energy rush through me at that moment I had to fist pump."
In the top of the fourth the Black Knights were able to get something going. Brandon Dinelli led off with a walk, followed by back to back two out walks to Markel and Nick Place that loaded the bases.
Wesneski, though, ended the threat with a strikeout and the lead was preserved.
"I thought coach was going to give me a fastball on 3-2 but he has faith in my curveball," Wesneski remarked.
The Warriors were beginning to get anxious as this game began look a lot similar to their earlier contest.
"I was thinking to myself, 'man, we've got to put more runs on the board,'" Rockwell remarked. "Or it's going to be a repeat of the last game."
In the bottom of the fifth, Canton gave themselves some more breathing room. Rockwell drew a two out walk then stole second. Route then brought him home on a single.
Tim Bassett came in to run for Route and he scored off a Watson hit. Watson would later score on a Wes Moore single to make it a 4-0 advantage.
"It was good insurance," Rockwell said.
The Black Knights answered in the top of the sixth.
Zach Ripic reached on an error then stole second. With two outs Place hit him home on a single but Canton got out of the inning as they caught Place in a rundown between first and second.
Wesneski then brought the game home in the seventh striking out the final batter to secure the win.
"When we finally finished it, it feels good," Rockwell said. "Towanda's never out of the game, it's always a good win against Towanda because they're always going to play you tough."
Route led Canton by going 2-for-3 with 2-RBI while Rockwell, Watson, Moore and Ball had the other Warrior hits. Watson and Moore also had RBI.
Wesneski struck out eight in the win while allowing three hits, one run and three walks.
"It felt pretty good," Wesneski remarked. "They're a tough team, I knew I had to hit my spots."
The sophomore relied on his teammates to help him through.
"They told me they had my back," Wesneski said. "I was just pitching to contact. They were hitting everything hard but they hit them right at my guys and my guys made the plays. It was just a good game overall."
"I thought Garrett threw a real fine game against us," Towanda coach Bill Sexton remarked. "He threw strikes, he didn't put himself in trouble. We just hit the ball to places where they were."
Huff, Markel and Place had the three Towanda hits.
Roof was tough in the loss, striking out nine while allowing six hits and four walks.
"I thought Mason threw a pretty good ball game tonight," Sexton said. "We didn't execute in other phases of the game. We gave them a big inning there when they scored the three runs on plays we should have made. We should have been out of that inning without out any runs. We gave them way too many opportunities and we capitalized on them."
For the Knights, Sexton believes they need to improve.
"We've got to be better," he explained. "We're not playing well. We didn't play well against Troy, we didn't play well tonight and we didn't play particularly well against Wellsboro even though we won the game. We need to be a lot better next week."
Both teams now have one league loss as they head into the stretch run.
Canton is a half game down as they have to finish a suspended game with Wyalusing when they travel there next Wednesday.
The Warriors just plan to take it one game at a time.
"I don't like to ever get too overconfident," Rockwell remarked. "We've just got to play as a team and you've got to keep beating league opponents. We'll see where it takes us from here."
