After a close loss to Sherrill, the Syracuse Spartans visited the Rochester Ridgemen for a pivotal late season game, as the playoff race continued to shrink between the Silversmiths, Spartans, and Saltcats respectively, with Rochester in a distant fifth place in the East. It was a 1pm first pitch in Rochester, Brandon Russell took the mound for the Ridgemen, Logan Persse the starter for Syracuse. Rochester won the game 10-3.

The Ridgemen struck first with a simple RBI single from Jeff Pawlik in the first. An error from Jimmy Legg made the run unearned. The trend continued with one more error throughout the first half of the game, where the Ridgemen scored a single run in the first four innings, all left unanswered by the Spoartans. 

Before the fifth inning, Spartans’ starter Logan Persse left a 4-0 with only 2 earned runs to his credit. That’s when the Spartans finally got 2 runs on the board, from a Cole Rockwell RBI triple, and a Matthew Alexander RBI single. 

In a 4-2 score, Aaron Cole took the mound for his second inning of relief in the sixth, where he allowed 3 runs to score from the Ridgemen, all unearned. On a double steal, the Spartans struggles with throwing runners out continued, and on a relay back to home plate, the ball got away, allowing both runners on base to score (Christian Gabriel, Cornellis Miller). Cade Ross then saw his way home on a pass ball after getting on base with a double.

The Spartans then left the sixth inning down 7-2. It wasn’t until the 7th inning when the Ridgemen’s first reliever would come in, as RHP Cam Witte came out of the bullpen first for Rochester. He threw a scoreless frame. As secondary bullpen arm Brady Bakner took the mound, he ended up giving up the last run of the ballgame for Syracuse in the 8th, as Perry Chetney struck a sacrifice fly to center field. 

After a final 3-spot from Rochester to Spartans pitcher Connor Lavigne’s credit, Rochester pitcher Cam Wright came in to shut things down, earning Rochester a paramount 10-3 win, slightly shrinking the playoff race in the Eastern division of the NYCBL.