Geneva’s catcher Pitcher is quite a hitter

BRUCE McCLIMANS
Star Beacon

May 20, 2008 02:45 am

— GENEVA — A pitcher and a catcher usually have a unique relationship. The pitcher depends upon his catcher to call a good game and a catcher has to believe that his pitcher can put the ball where he wants.
In the case of Jefferson versus Geneva, the roles have been changed to protect the innocent as Geneva catcher Billy Pitcher put the ball where he wanted it—over the fence as in two home runs and five RBI.
The result produced a 5-3 verdict for Geneva on the Eagles’ home turf.
If you matched the Falcons and the Eagles 100 times in a season, it would difficult to figure who would have the better record. Earlier in the season, Jefferson beat Geneva on consecutive evenings to ensure winning the season series, but closer investigation will show that Jefferson had to come back to beat Geneva, 12-11, after blowing a 9-1 early lead.
Eagle third baseman Nate Horgan had two home runs in that game to lead the Eagles. The following game was a barnburner as well as the Falcons, in extra innings, scored two runs in the bottom of the ninth, after Geneva had scored the go-ahead run in the top of that inning, to win, 6-5.
“You know, they are a great team and they have great hitters,” Geneva coach Justin Cafaro said. “We played them well twice, and it felt good to come out and play a better game against them this time. We played good the second time, but lost in extra innings, but this is the kind of game that we have the ability to play.”
Although defense keeps a team in games, Geneva made its share of errors, but it was able to compensate for them with other smart plays in the field.
In the fifth, with the score 3-2 Geneva, the Falcons had a runner on second with one out. Andrew Saksa singled to left and C.J. Graf tried to score, but was gunned down at the plate by a BB shot out of the arm of Matt Freeman to keep the Falcons at bay. Jefferson went on in that inning to tie the score, 3-3, but it was the out at the plate that may have changed the course of the game.
Jefferson led off the game with a run in the first as Ryan Morford singled and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by C.J. Graf and came home when Zak Blair was hit by a pitch.
Geneva countered when Bobby Jewell led off with a single. Jordan Harchalk got on by an error but was erased on a fielder’s choice by Horgan. Then, Pitcher came up and put the Eagles up, 3-2, on a drive over the left-field fence on a low fastball by Falcon pitcher Johnathan Wilson.
Although both Geneva (13-9, 8-4 in NEC) and Jefferson (21-6, 10-2) had chances to up the score, fine plays in the outfield by both teams squelched potential rallies.
It wasn’t until the bottom of the fifth that Geneva could catch its breath as Pitcher came through in the clutch and blasted 1-1 fastball by Morford well beyond the fence in center field.
“That was the best hit I ever got,” Pitcher said. “I never felt the ball hit the bat. I must have hit the sweet spot. Oh, man, as soon as I hit it I knew it was gone. He (Morford) just left it up for me to hit.”
Like the rest of his Eagle teammates, Pitcher has felt they may have left something out on the field when they played the Falcons previously. That’s why Monday’s win was so satisfying.
“I feel really good right now,” Pitcher said. “It feels good that we, as a team, finally came together, because this was one team we wanted to beat all season.
Jefferson coach Scott Barber’s team (21-6, 10-2 in NEC) was rated seventh in the state in Division II at the start of this week. Although it would have been a nice finishing touch to beat Geneva, he knew the Falconss had bigger fish to fry as his team faces Lake Catholic on Thursday at Havens Complex in the district semifinals.
“Two good pitches were hit well by Geneva, but it was a well-played game by both teams,” he said. “We had our opportunities, but they made the plays they had to make.”

McClimans is a freelance writer from Ashtabula.