It was a rough day in Syracuse Wednesday evening as the Spartans geared up for a 5pm first pitch in a scheduled doubleheader with the visiting Dansville Gliders. The main concern for the Spartans headed into the evening was their pitching. With a short-handed pitching staff, a lack of arms proved too much in their 7-6, then 4-3 losses in their last doubleheader, just a week prior in Hornell. 

And no differences were sought out. Although the Spartans split the doubleheader Wednesday against Dansville, winning the first game 7-1, then dropping game 2 in shocking fashion, with pitching dotting up a whopping 11-2 loss. 

As for the highlighted game 1, Nick Jessen once again started questionably, fighting through control issues and a new curveball grip, throwing 5 innings, allowing only the 1 run he gave up in the first inning. Quite obviously, Jessen’s confidence was the beneficiary of a great display of run support. The main contributor at the dish for the ballgame was undoubtedly JC Ng, going 3 for 4, surprisingly left with no RBIs, though. The run producers for that matter fell into the hands of Colin Williams and Bryce Moore, who’s lone base hits were both bases clearing doubles. 

And promisingly enough, Josh Martin once again came in and shut the door. On top of that, he’s proven to be an excellent closer, as well as a go-to extended reliever. In 3 scoreless innings, he did not allow a single runner on base. Another perfect outing, and Martin continues to prove his role at the closing spot in the bullpen.

Moving onto game 2, it was day and night for the Spartans. In an 11-2 loss, the lack of pitching caught up to them. Early on, the coaching staff appeared to let pitchers go for as long as possible. Ethan Collins was the starter, and was wild, but effective, early. He allowed 3 hits over 4.2 IP, where eventually 6 walks he allowed caught up to him, on top of a whopping 5 errors being dealt by the Spartans in his outing alone. 9 errors was the total on the ballgame!

Moving forward, as mentioned, once Collins’ day was over, the lack of arms caught up to them. After a scoreless Jack Clifford inning and an added out from lefty Jacob Crystal, it began to get haywire. With who was effectively the last fresh arm in the bullpen, Stephen Kwak took the mound coming of a lower body injury, and showed a high level of discomfort. With a lack of command, he himself added 4 walks to the total of 12 on the game. He showed some fight though, jack-knifing his way through two consecutive outs after allowing 4 batters on in a row.

Following that, the two Spartans runs allowed were both unearned, and in a 5-hit outing, the Spartans bats proved no help at OCC. Following a brief closing effort from position player Cole Rockwell on the mound (0.1 IP, 0 H, 0 ER), the Spartans went 1-2-3 in their final chance. 

The Spartans may have split the series 1-1, but ended up being outscored on the evening 12-8 by the Gliders. The SPartans move onto 6-3 on the season, still possessing 1st place in the East, as the Gliders maintain 2nd over in the West with a record of 5-3. OCC hosts the Spartans for another home matchup come Friday, as the Ridgemen come into town for their 3rd game this year against the Spartans for a 7pm first pitch.