Sweet Home needs extra innings, beats Clarence
Baseball
by PATRICK J. NAGY Reporter

It took the Sweet Home baseball team 15 tries last spring to win its first game but only three chances this year to post its first victory.

Sweet Home edged Clarence, 10-8, in nine innings last Thursday at Clarence.

Senior Travis Denman smacked a two-RBI single that scored juniors Ryan Gutt and Bryan Price in the top of the ninth as the team held off a pesky Clarence squad that tied the Panthers at 6-6 in the bottom of the seventh and 8-8 in the bottom of the eighth.

"It was a great game," said Sweet Home coach Derek Zgoda. "After Clarence tied it at 6-6 and then 8-8, it would have been easy to let the air deflate out of us but we came back in the eighth. We never hung our heads which showed me we're a much more confident team than we were last year."

Sweet Home never trailed Clarence but the Red Devils kept hanging around. The Panthers scored twice in the top of the first inning (Cody Stonish on a John Graziano single; Denman from a Brian Pappagallo single) but Clarence tied the game at 2-2 in the bottom of the inning and 3-3 after the second.

The Panthers' run in the top of the second came courtesy of Phillip Stewart from a Stonish single.

Sweet Home scored twice more in the third (Graziano from Mike Wolcott ground ball to shortstop; Pappagallo on Craig Young double) and one in the fifth (Pappagallo singled and scored on Clarence catcher error).

Sweet Home scored twice more in the eighth when Stonish led off with a triple and scored on a Denman single and Denman scored on a Wolcott triple.

Sweet Home outhit Clarence, 11-9. Denman led the Panthers' offense, hitting 3 for 5 with three RBIs. Graziano (2 for 6, RBI), Pappagallo (2 for 3, RBI), Wolcott (1 for 4, two RBIs), Stonish (triple), Young (double) and Stewart (single) also supplied hits.

Stonish pitched the final three innings in relief to earn his first career varsity win.

Sweet Home was competitive in its two other games, falling to Clarence, 10-8 in eight innings, on April 7 and Lancaster, 7-5, on April 8. Both games were played at Sweet Home.

Sweet Home scored three runs in the first inning (Denman RBI single, Stonish RBI double) and made it 4-0 in the fourth (Aaron Klein singled, stole second, scored on error by catcher) but Clarence scored five times in the fifth and tacked on another run in the sixth to go ahead, 6-3.

Sweet Home would tie the game at 6-6 in the bottom of the sixth on an RBI single by Pappagallo.

The Red Devils added four runs in the top of the eighth. In the bottom of the eighth, Wolcott led off with a single and scored on an RBI double by Casey Kacz and Stewart reached base on a fielder's choice and scored on a Pappagallo sacrifice fly.

Eight of the nine Sweet Home starters got a base hit. Kacz cracked a double and single, Stonish smacked two doubles, Wolcott and Stewart each had two singles and Pappagallo, Graziano, Denman and Klein each had one hit.

Zgoda said his team had about two hits after the first four games of last season.

The Panthers never held the lead against Lancaster. The Redskins, who eliminated Sweet Home in the first round of last year's sectionals, jumped out to a 3-0 advantage in the second and took a 7-3 lead in the top of the fifth.

Sweet Home plated two runs in the fifth when Stonish and Denman each scored on errors but never threatened in the sixth or seventh.

The Panthers scored twice in the second (Pappgallo walked and scored on Young single; Chris Hammer singled and scored on Kacz double) and once in the third (Stonish led off with a single, stole second and scored on Denman double).

Kacz (single), Stonish (single) and Denman (double) also contributed to the Panthers' offense.

Stewart allowed one earned run with a strikeout and walk over the final three innings.

Sweet Home (1-2) returns to action at 4:30 p.m. on Monday, April 21 when they host Williamsville East. The Panthers also play at Iroquois and Williamsville South next Wednesday and Thursday, and host Lake Shore on Friday.

"Good things can happen if we continue to play like we have," said Zgoda. "The guys' hearts are in the right place."