Dynamites are second at Darien Lake Tourney

Contributed Story Posted 14 June 2017 at 12:59 pm

The Dynamites dropped a narrow 4-2 decision to the Niagara Jr. Thunderwolves in the championship game of the Darien Lake U12 Baseball Tournament this past weekend.

Pitching was the story to this match up as Xander Payne pitched a solid 5 innings, striking out 8 and giving up 4 runs. Johnson for the Thuderwolves pitched 6 innings striking out 9.  giving up 2.

The Dynamites scored in the top of the first but the Thunderwolves answered in the bottom of the inning. The Thunderwolves added 3 more across the next three innings which the Dynamites could not answer.

The Dynamites advanced to the finals by defeating the Brampton Royals from Canada 7-6 in a back-and-forth contest.

The game was tied in the 5th until Bryan Baes homered, giving the Dynamite a one run lead.
Payne came in in the top of the 6th and shut down the last 3 batters to give the Dynamites the victory. Thomas Russo and Iverson Poole combined for 5 innings giving up 6 runs while at the plate, Baes and Cecchini had 2 hits apiece and Payne, Amari Jones and Russo each added one.

The Dynamites opened up the tournament on Friday by downing the Niagara Wheatfield Jr. Falcons 14-5. After a slow start and a few fielding errors, the Dynamites were trailing 5 to 1 going into the 4th inning. The Dynamite bats woke up in the bottom of the inning and answered with a 7 runs of their own. They followed up that performance with 6 more in the 5th. Ryan Mettler came in and shut down any attempt of a rally with a scoreless 6 inning to end the game. At the plate Jimmy Terryberry and Kaeden Wisnieski contributed with home runs while Payne and Mettler gave up 1 earned run.

The Dynamites had a double header on Saturday to close out the tournament play for final seeding with matchups against the Utica Hurricanes and Team New Era.

In game one against the Hurricanes, The Dynamite bats got going early with an 8 run 1st inning. Amari Jones kept the Hurricanes bats calm only giving up one run threw the first 3 innings. The Hurricanes got a two runs in the 4th and another in the 5th to close the gap but the Dynamites bats that were silent for 4 innings woke again in the bottom of the 5th to close out the Hurricanes with the 10 run rule by scoring 6 runs in the bottom of the inning. Terryberry came in in relief to pitch the final  inning. At the plate, Joe Cecchini, A. Jones had two hits while Payne, Mettler,  Baes, Thomas Russo all added one apiece.

In the playoff round the Dynamites bested Team Valle out of Rochester 5-4. Aidan Paul started on the mound pitching 3 innings giving up one run. Amari Jones came in in relief to hold off a late inning rally and keep Valle to a 4 run total.  Cecchini had a two-run home run in the bottom of the 4th that gave the Dynamite a one run lead. At the plate, Baes, Javon Jones and Wisnieski all added hits.