Springfield's Bladyka earns 200th victory

Andy Bladyka has been coaching varsity softball at Springfield longer than his current team has been alive. They all celebrated his 200th career victory with equal excitement after the Cosmos upended unbeaten Green Mountain 8-5 Saturday night.

www.eagletimes.com    

2017-05-15 / Sports Print Springfield's Bladyka earns 200th victory « » Springfield's Hannah Crosby picked up the win over Green Mountain. — TIM TAYLOR By TIM TAYLOR sports@eagletimes.com SPRINGFIELD – Andy Bladyka has been coaching varsity softball at Springfield longer than his current team has been alive. They all celebrated his 200th career victory with equal excitement after the Cosmos upended unbeaten Green Mountain 8-5 Saturday night. Earlier in the day, the Cosmos' baseball team also won a battle with GM, 6-5. Bladyka is in his 22nd season at Springfield, 19th as the varsity coach. Assistant Mike Langdon has been with him for the past 18. The coach credits the success to the caliber of player that comes out for the team every year and the effort they put forth. That effort was clear when two solid teams clashed on a rainy night under the lights. “Green Mountain came in at 8-0,” Bladyka said. “We play them in summer league. The kids know each other. Their record, I know they played a weaker schedule, but their record is absolutely legitimate. They're a good team. They're strong up and down the line-up. They've got good kids at every position. “Our kids are coming along. We're making progress. We haven't had many close games. We've either won by a fair amount or lost by a fair amount, so it's good for us to get some pressure in a game like this, despite the weather. Being 6-4 in the late innings is one of those things we need to build on, learning how to play under pressure and we ddid that tonight.” “We made a couple of big errors,” said GM coach Terry Farrell. “A couple of balls at third base. Generally, she's an all-star third baseman. She just had tough decisions tonight. “We left a ton of people on base too, but we haven't seen this kind of pitching. It's a step in the right direction. We've got to hit better pitching, put the ball in play. That's the most we've struck out all year. We usually strike out once, twice a game.” The Cosmos created some space between themselves and GM in the bottom of the third inning, but still had to hold off a challenge in the Chieftains' final at-bats. With their team behind 8-4, Anne Lamson and Kim Schultz drew walks to start the seventh, but a ground out followed strikeout looked to be a rally killer. However, Lexi White would walk and Hanna Veysey would get hit by a pitch, the latter scoring Lamson and extending GM's life a little longer. But Hannah Crosby would fan the final batter on three pitches to end the game. It would be Crosby's 12th “K” of the night, offsetting nine walks and two hit batters. Most of the free passes issued by Crosby came in spurts as she also walked White, Veysey and Cummings back-to-back-to-back in the third, and Lamson, Schultz and Rachel Guerra consecutively in the fourth. Key to the Cosmos' victory was a 3-run fourth in which walks to Jessica Cerniglia, singles by Lina Geyer and Laura Wentworth, and a hit batter, Cassidy Otis, would break a 3-3 deadlock. Crosby followed Otis with a 2-run single to center field and moved to second on the throw home. GM avoided further damage as catcher Madison Wilson alertly threw to third to get Cassidy and pitcher Erika Knockenhauer retired the next two batters on a pop-up to second and a grounder to third. Singles by Wilson and Schultz got another run back in the fifth, but Springfield would double up the score with base hits from Otis and Julianna Albero-Levings, and an error in left field off the bat of Stagner. The game started with Crosby retiring the first five batters on three strikeouts and a pair of infield outs before Lamson broke up the no-hitter with a single. Schultz followed with a base hit, but the Cosmos failed to push a run across. Meanwhile, Knockenhauer was perfect through the first five batters with no balls leaving the infield and one strikeout before beaning Stagner and walking Hailey Rabtoy, and giving up an RBI single to Ashley Chamberlain. Barr singled with one away in the third, and walks to White, Veysey and Cummings tied the score at 1-1, but Crosby fanned the next two batters to get out of danger. Springfield responded with a pair of runs in its half of the third behind a walk to Wentworth, singles by Otis and Albero-Levings and a few GM miscues to go up 3-1. The Chieftains came right back in the fourth to tie the game on walks to Lamson, Schultz and Guerra, and a single by Barr. The weather conditions were as challenging for Knockenhauer as they were for Crosby. She struck out four, walked three and hits four batters. Both pitchers gave up seven hits apiece. Otis went 2-for-3 and Albero-Levings 2-for-4 for Springfield. Geyer, Wentworth and Crosby added one hit each. For GM, Barr was 3-for-4 while Veysey, Wilson, Lamson and Schultz contributed one hit apiece. Green Mountain (8-1) hosts Black River (6-2) today while Springfield (6-3) visits Fair Haven (7-4). Baseball Springfield 6, Green Mountain 5 Once again, the Cosmos came up big late to pull out a hard-fought win over GM. In their previous meeting, the Cosmos rallied late for a 7-6 win. This time, they won it in the bottom of the seventh. “It was hard again too,” said Springfield coach Rich Saypack. “We're pretty equal teams. It's too bad we can't play 16 games against one another. It would probably be fun. “Their kid [Josh Woods] pitched a good game. He kept us off balance. I think both starters pitched a good game. Both kids deserved to win.” Dylan Merrow drew a walk to lead off the bottom of the seventh. Then, with one away, Nick Bedi singled and Levi Perham reached on a fielder's choice. Merrow's pinch runner, Jacob Stepler, would end up on third. He would score the game-winning run when Matt Vesey launched a fly ball into right which the fielder was unable to make a play on. “Again, just timely hitting,” said GM coach Matt McCarthy. “We had just four hits. We left the bases loaded twice, one time with one out, one time with zero. We just couldn't capitalize.” As big as the offense was in the win, the defense came through in the top of the inning to help get relief pitcher Matt Lachapelle out of a bases-loaded jam. Second baseman Merrow's heads-up play, getting the force at home on a ground ball was a big out, and a strikeout and fly ball followed. Mack Walton's double and an error off Ben Riley's bat led to a 2-0 GM lead to start the game, but the Cosmos made it 2-1 when Bedi singled and scored. The Cosmos went up 3-2 in the second when Merrow walked and Gabe Considine singled and both scored on a throwing error. They added another run in the fourth when John Stafford drew a bases-loaded walk. Springfield turned a 1-2-3 double play in the fourth to get out of trouble, but the Chieftains threatened again in the fifth after drawing three walks, but again came away empty. Considine singled and scored to push the advantage to 5-2 heading into the sixth, but Green Mountain rallied in the sixth. The Chieftains pushed two runs across on a bad throw to first, then added another run moments later on another Cosmo miscue. “That's kind of our nemesis this year is the errors on our part and we just kind of let teams get a couple unearned runs,” McCarthy said. “I think both of us can express untimely errors, it's tough” Saypack said. “We're pretty happy. We put the ball in play. Made some mistakes, but we had a bench to go to when we needed it.” Two strikeouts and sandwiched around a ground ball out in the bottom of the sixth sent the game into the final inning deadlocked at five apiece. “We made some changes. We brought some younger guys up. We're juggling,” Saypack said. “We want to get in position for June. Who knows, but we've go to try. We can't just sit here dormant.” Springfield (3-7) hosts Otter Valley (6-4) today while GM (6-4) heads to Woodstock (5-4) Wednesday night. Note: Shortstop Tom Knockenhauer suffered a head injury on a play at second base. He will miss a few days, but is expected to return.