Rain Delay for Bucks with St. John Neumann

by Jim Morgan

bucks-baseballFARWELL – This past Monday the Bucks baseball game was in a rain delay with St. John Neumann. The game will be picked up in the top of the fourth with St. John ahead 4-1. The continuation date was not decided when both teams left the field.
 Meanwhile Bucktail baseball is off to its best start in many years, pushing their record to 4-0. The strong senior corps of Tony Saltsman, Trent Risley and Chuck Probst has been doing an outstanding job on the mound. Coach Bill Probst has been able to hold Probst back as the closer for the start of the season. In due time, he will see the start of the game as the Bucks will begin playing the big dogs, like Montgomery on Wednesday April 16 at home.

Saltsman and Risley have put some life into the Bucks pitching staff this season as Saltsman has begun by starting the game while Risley relieves in the middle innings. Saltsman has been fighting injuries for the last two years during baseball season.

Coach Probst said, “It’s nice to see him out there on the mound. This is a big bonus for us on the way Saltsman and Risley are throwing right now. It’s going to give us that much more confidence when I do start Chuck on the mound.”

After playing three straight days the young arms were getting tired on the last game against Cowanesque Valley as the Bucks won 8-3 last Thursday.  Bucktail started the first inning off with three straight hits by Risley, Saltsman and Chris Spencer. Kevin Probst hit a ball to right field for two unearned runs.

The second inning with two outs, Chuck Probst and Risley banged two straight hits as Saltsman walked for bases loaded. Spencer drove one to left centerfield for two RBI’s. Third inning with two outs and two Bucks on base, Chuck Probst drove a hard grounder to second base for two unearned runs.

CV in the second inning had runners at second and first with one out. Saltsman on the mound had a pick-off move to second base with shortstop Chuck Probst as they ended up turning a double play on two rundowns between second and third, then first and second.

In the sixth inning, Bucktail had bases loaded with two outs as Kevin Probst drove a hard grounder to shortstop for two more unearned runs. Bucktail just took full advantage of the mistakes that CV was making as CV scored their three runs in the last two innings of the game.

Saltsman pitched into the fourth inning with two outs until Coach Probst put Chuck Probst in to strikeout the final out with bases loaded. C. Probst ended up with six strikeouts in two and a third innings. Risley came in the seventh inning to hold CV to just two runs for the final score of 8-3.

Last Wednesday the Bucks traveled down to Columbia-Montour Vo-Tech, winning 13-1 in five innings. Saltsman and Risley combined for seven strikeouts. The Bucks started off with C. Probst walking as he stole second and third before Saltsman drove him in on a single to left centerfield.

Bucktail would take advantage of CMVT’s mistakes in the third inning as CMVT committed five errors as the Bucks scored nine runs. It was highlighted with C. Probst having two singles and scoring twice. The bottom of the order also came alive in the inning as Collin Burrows, Derrick Long, Blake Gavlock and Aaron Ransdorf had key at-bats.

The fourth inning Bucktail key hitters came out as C. Probst, Risley and Saltsman hit the ball hard with two outs to score three more runs.

CMVT did not score until the fifth inning as Risley came out struggling to find the plate from the mound. He kept it under control to finish the inning as he gave up one run.

Over a week ago, the Bucks took on Canton, state runners-up from last year.

Bucktail stunned Canton on their own field as they left with a 6-5 win. In the first inning Canton took advantage of the Bucks as Saltsman struggled on the mound walking three batters as a key error by the Bucks infield allowed Canton to score two runs.

But in the top of the second inning, Spencer of Bucktail smashed a homerun over the left centerfield fence for the first Buck run. Top of the third inning Ransdorf started with a walk. C. Probst and Risley had two hard singles. Saltsman drew a walk for a run as Spencer had a sacrifice fly to centerfield for a RBI. Burrows even put down a bunt with two outs as the Bucks headed into the bottom of the inning leading 4-2.

Canton would answer back with a run before Ryan Prebble would start the fourth inning with a hit. Ransdorf would get on by a fielders choice error as Risley walked to load the bases. Spencer again would come up with a big two out hit as he drove two more runs across home plate on a hard single to left centerfield.

Saltsman was able to give the Bucks three innings as Risley came in to give Coach Probst two more innings as Canton was able to score one more run going into the sixth inning.  C. Probst was handed the ball in the sixth inning to save the game. But Canton was not giving up as C. Probst started out with two straight outs. Then the next two batters had big hits as an error on top of one of those hit resulted in a run.

With the score 6-5 into the bottom of the seventh, Canton came out trying to rattle C. Probst on the mound as an infield error allowed the first batter on. The second batter had a single down the third base line. Now C. Probst is about to take over the plate, as he pumps up the velocity of his pitches; striking out the next two batters and getting the third one to ground out to second base for the final out of the game.

The Bucks were to be at home this Wednesday playing Montgomery. On Thursday they will travel to Benton. Monday the Bucks will return home to play Oswayo Valley as all the games will start at 4:30 PM.

 

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