Baseball: Ottawa rallies late, slips past Seneca in season opener

OTTAWA – Taking advantage of opportunities took on a new meaning for the Ottawa and Seneca baseball teams Wednesday, and it didn’t just apply to finding the warmest spot out of the wind in the Whitney Field dugouts.

After the Irish capitalized on control issues by the Ottawa pitchers to score six runs on one hit in the fourth inning, the Pirates returned the favor late.

Aiden Mucci slapped a two-run single to erase the last of a three-run deficit in the home half of the sixth to lift the Pirates to a 9-7 victory in the season opener for both teams.

“I was really proud of how we battled, how we didn’t roll over there, then got it done in a late-game situation like that.”

—  Ottawa baseball coach Tyler Wargo

The rally, in which Rylan Dorsey, Mucci and Payton Knoll combined to plate four runs with consecutive hits, made a winner of the third Pirates pitcher of the day, Daniel Bruner, before Mucci came on to close it out with a scoreless seventh.

Aiden Vilcek suffered the loss for the Irish, who collected only three hits off those Ottawa pitchers.

“It’s not easy, in this type of weather this early in the year to be down 7-4 in the sixth, then battle back to get five and give yourself a chance at the end to close it down and win,” Ottawa coach Tyler Wargo said.

“Credit Seneca. They got big hits when it mattered, they put the ball in play when it mattered, they took advantage of us not throwing as many strikes as we needed to, but I was really proud of how we battled, how we didn’t roll over there, then got it done in a late-game situation like that.

“Dorsey threw three pretty good innings for us. Cam struggled today, but that’s not him. He’ll be OK, but it’s a good sign when the team picks somebody up when they don’t have their best stuff.”

Dorsey fired three hitless, scoreless innings with six strikeouts to start Ottawa’s day, leaving with a 2-0 lead on RBI hits by Branden Aguirre and Conner Price off Seneca starter Austin Aldridge in the home second.

However, Cam Loomis relieved him in the fourth and struggled right off the bat. With one out, he walked the bases loaded before an error on Chase Buis’ grounder allowed the first run to score. David Hatz singled in another, Kenny Daggett was hit by a pitch to force in the third run, and Paxton Giertz walked to plate the fourth.

Calvin Maierhofer singled in the last two runs to make it 6-2 Irish.

Ottawa got two runs back in its half of the inning on a walk to Mucci, Knoll hit by a pitch, a run-scoring grounder by Aguirre and an error on a Price bouncer.

Maierhofer drove in another run with a double in the top of the sixth before Ottawa’s big rally. With one out and two on against Vilcek, Bruner slapped a grounder to second that Aldridge flipped to Maierhofer at second for a force, but his relay to Casey Clennon at first was just wide to prevent the double play, and Price scored.

After that, it was all Pirates.

Ryan Chamberlain walked, Dorsey slammed an RBI single, and Mucci drove in two with a single to center field, giving the hosts an 8-7 edge. Knoll then doubled, his second hit of the day, to add an insurance run.

“The biggest play of the game was that double play we almost turned in the sixth,” Seneca coach Tim Brungard said. “If we get that out, they don’t score any runs in that inning, and we come away with a win. It’s a game of inches, and sometimes those plays go your way, sometimes they don’t, but when they don’t, like in that situation, we have to buckle down and make plays. Credit [Ottawa]. It was their game today.

“First game, and it’s a cold night, so we didn’t plan on hitting everything on the screws, but I felt we did everything we could offensively to get a big win on Day 1. They just had a few more answers than we did.”

Seneca is scheduled to travel to Gardner-South Wilmington at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, while the Pirates are slated to host Plainfield Central at 4:15 p.m. Friday.