Albion rallies late to avenge loss to Akron

Photos by Cheryl Wertman – Albion’s Vincent Zona slides safely into second base as Akron’s Brandon Orr takes the throw. The action took place during the Purple Eagles win over the Tigers this evening at Vets Park.

Exactly reversing the outcome of Tuesday’s meeting, Albion used a big late inning rally to defeat previously unbeaten Akron 11-7 this evening in a rainy Niagara-Orleans League baseball game at Vets Park.

Albion, which lost by the same 11-7 margin at Akron on Tuesday, erased a 7-4 deficit with a big seven run sixth inning scoring explosion to claim the victory and stay in the thick of the N-O title chase.

A single by Bryce Pritchard, a walk and a single by Isaiah Callicutt loaded the bases to open the decisive sixth inning and set up the Purple Eagles big rally.

Mike DiCureia then banged out a key two-run single to pull Albion to within one and a wild pitch plated the equalizer.

Bases loaded walks to Addison Christ and Liam Ward then put the Purple Eagles on top for good at 9-7 and a pair of Akron errors tacked on a pair of insurance runs.

Ward then came on in relief in the top of the seventh to close out the Albion victory registering three strikeouts as Akron left a pair of runners stranded.

Stranded base runners proved to be Albion’s big problem over the first five innings as the Purple Eagles left the bases loaded in both the third and fourth innings and left two runners aboard in both the first and fifth frames.

Akron jumped out to a quick 1-0 lead in the first inning but Albion answered with a pair of runs in the third on an RBI single by Pritchard and a bases loaded walk.

The Tigers went back up 4-2 by scoring three times in the top of the fourth on a wild pitch, a fielders choice play and an RBI single by Jacob Cummings.

The Purple Eagles though quickly knotted the contest at 4-4 by answering with a pair of runs in the home half of the fourth on a sacrifice fly by Pritchard and a bases loaded walk.

The sea-saw battle continued as Akron tallied three times in the top of the fifth on a wild pitch and RBI singles by Jacob Siska and Nic Pietrowski to regain the lead for what proved to be the last time at 7-4.

However, the last scoring burst and the victory in the three hour long marathon contest belonged to Albion as the Purple Eagles capitalized on a bases loaded opportunity big time in the sixth inning turning 4 walks, 2 errors, a wild pitch and Dicureia’s two-run single into a seven run uprising to regain the lead for good at 11-7.

Akron slips to 5-1 while Albion improves to 4-2 as the now tight four-way N-O title race also has defending champion Roy-Hart at 3-1 and Medina at 3-2.

The day’s other N-O games (Barker vs. Roy-Hart and Newfane vs. Wilson) were postponed due to the rainy weather as were the N-O softball matchups of Barker vs. Roy-Hart and Newfane vs. Wilson.

Albion’s Bryce Pritchard goes high to try and haul in a throw at first base as Akron’s Nic Pietrowski crosses the bag.