Purple Eagles down rival Mustangs to tighten N-O diamond title race

By Mike Wertman, Sports Writer Posted 1 May 2015 at 12:00 am

Photos by Cheryl Wertman – Albion’s Dominic DiCureia tags out Medina’s Kyle Herman trying to take second base during the Purple Eagles win over the visiting Mustangs this afternoon.

Exactly reversing the score of an earlier season loss, Albion defeated visiting Medina 9-2 this afternoon to really tighten up the Niagara-Orleans League title race.

Slipping to 7-2, Medina now holds just a one game lead over the trio of Albion, CSAT and Newfane which are all deadlocked at 6-3. CSAT defeated Roy-Hart 9-1 and Newfane nipped Akron 1-0.

Albion took the lead for good at 5-0 by scoring five times in the second inning highlighted by singles by Aaron Burnside, winning pitcher Austin Loyd, Brady Meakin, Dominic DiCureia and Evan Pappalardo.

The Purple Eagles later tacked on RBI singles by Matt Howell in the third inning and DiCureia in the fifth and a run producing double by Gary Moore in the sixth.

DiCureia finished with 3 hits as Howell, Moore, Loyd and Pappalardo each had 2.

On the mound, Loyd scattered 5 hits and struck out 8.

Medina scored once in the fourth on a double by Matt Riemer and once in the sixth on a fielders choice play.

Kyle Herman had 2 hits for the Mustangs.

Austin Loyd delivers a pitch for Albion.

Newfane 1, Akron 0

Will Newton pitched a no hitter with 10 strikeouts to lead Newfane past Akron 1-0.

Newton also set up the game’s lone run in the fifth inning with a double and came home on a sacrifice fly by Nick Olay.

Barker 9, Wilson 7

Doug Bachman, Brad Wilson and Mike Snell each had 2 hits to help lead Barker past Wilson 9-7.

Snell also came up with a strong relief effort getting the final two outs in the seventh on a ground out and a strikeout after Wilson had loaded the bases.

Joe Littere had 3 hits, including a double, and Jonah Miller a double for Wilson.

Barker is now 4-5 and Wilson 0-9.