Tri-Valley Loses In Championship Game

TRI-VALLEY NEVER GAVE UP     

  Being down by eight runs after the first two innings of the Section 9 Class C championship last Thursday against Rhinebeck didn't stop the Tri-Valley Bears from attempting a comeback which almost was successful in the sixth inning.

  Rhinebeck went on to gain the win 11-5.

  In that sixth inning Tri-Valley, trailing 8-5, brought the tying run to the plate. The inning started out with Alex Brown driving a ball to Rhinebeck's short stop who's throw to first was not handled by the first baseman. Aric Boyes was walked. Donavan Flores popped up to the catcher. Andrew Exner singled to right (he was 3-for-4 at the plate).

  With the bases loaded with Bears Cody Exner walked, scoring one run, Justin Swarthout flied out to center, Rodney T. Jester hit a ground ball to short which was bobbled and resulted in Jester being safe at first. Michael Foster singled to right and took second on the throw to the plate making the score now 8-5. John Anzano with runners on second and third grounded out to third ending the inning.

  The attempted comeback bid by Tri-Valley added  momentum to the Hawks push for their first ever Section 9 baseball championship at they pushed across three more runs in their half of the sixth inning to increase their lead to 11-5.

  Tri-Valley sophomore starting pitcher Justin Swarthout struggled the first two innings with Rhinebeck scoring three in the first and five in the second inning.

  Rhinebeck showed patience at the plate and speed on the basepaths with numerous stolen bases and timely hitting.

  Tri-Valley coach John Rusin gave high praise for his Bears team saying, "they were down eight runs and they never quit and that was this team all year long." He gave credit to the team's attitude commenting that "sometimes their approach was not there but the attitude was always there."

 Rhinebeck coach Bill Carney gave credit to his starting pitcher Josh Hanaburgh for his "outstanding performance in today's heat." He gave a big pat on the back to his leadoff hitter, Nick Hoynes who went 1-for-3 with four stolen bases and three runs scored.

  The heat in Thursday's game resulted in the contest being delayed almost an hour and a half as the New York State Public High School Athletic Association's heat safety policy states that if the heat index on accuweather.com....which takes humidity and air temperature into account....for a particular location is at 96 degrees or higher, the contest must not begin until the heat index drops to 95 or below.

  The game scheduled to start at 4 p.m. got underway at 5:20.

  In commenting on the loss Coach Rusin said, "this has been a special group for me because the group before them kind of had a path mapped out for them as they were highly touted coming through..... they played three years of varsity ball...they went to one section championship game and they won the next championship game."

  "This team this year had faith in themselves, they started 2-6 and they kept finding their way and they knew what they were capable of", Rusin added.

  Sophomore Jared Nash relieved Swarthout on the mound for the Bears and pitched four innings of one-hit relief.

  The scoring tally for this championship game gave Rhinebeck three runs in the first inning, five runs in the second inning and three runs in the sixth. For Tri-Valley they had one run in the third and four in the sixth.

  Tri-Valley totaled five runs off 10 hits and four errors. Rhinebeck had 11 runs off eight hits and one error. 

  Andrew Exner led Tri-Valley with three hits and Jester and Foster added two hits apiece.

  Tri-Valley seniors playing in their last high school game included John Anzano, Aric Boyes, Kyle Burkey, Andrew Exner, Cody Exner, Michael Foster, Rodney T. Jester and Bradley VanAken.

   Tri-Valley players, coach Rusin and Bear's fans shed numerous tears as they consoled each other following the game and Tri-Valley's attempt to win back to back Section 9 baseball championships 

Tri-Valley's sophomore pitcher Jared Nash pitched four innings of one-hit relief for the Bears in Thursday's Section 9 championship game.

                                        

Tri-Valley coach John Rusin consoles starting pitcher sophomore Justin Swarthout and senior catcher John Anzano following the Bears loss to Rhinebeck. 

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