VOORHEESVILLE — It was the shortest hit of the day, but it was a big one for the Voorheesville baseball team.

Nick Duncan’s infield hit, between third base and the pitcher’s mound, produced the winning run and a Colonial Council title.

The hit brought home Pete Lindner, who had hit a booming triple in the previous at bat, for the game-winning run and the Birds’ second straight league championship.
"It was a goal," said Voorheesville Coach Hank Czerwinski. ‘To have an 0-3 start and we come back to win the Colonial Council is quite thrilling. The Colonial Council is very tough. There are a lot of good teams. When the sectional seedings come out, the league will probably have six to eight teams in the sectionals."

The Section II Class B pairings were released Wednesday, so Czerwinski was not sure where his team was going to be but figured on a home game on Thursday.
"We’ll probably be a six or seven seed even though we won the Colonial Council," he said. "But we have seven losses overall."

The low seeding can’t dampen recognition for the effort the Blackbirds put together to win the league. It came down to the final innings.

Cohoes freshman pitcher Josh Temple had been pitching a good game, giving up three hits in his first four innings. He gave up two in the fifth but got out of the inning when Voorheesville stranded runners on first and second.

Cohoes also took a 3-0 lead in the top half of the frame on three hits and a throwing error by pitcher Jake Norris.

Norris had pitched brilliantly and had not given up a hit until Mike Welcome led off the inning with a double. Joe Bourgois then bunted the ball and Norris fielded and rushed his throw to first base and Welcome was able to advance to third.

Nate Rushford also bunted and Norris threw the ball to second to try to force the runner out but the throw was wide and Welcome scored to make it 1-0.

After Eric Cotch grounded out to Norris, Joe Cioffi hit a single that drove in Bourgois and Rushford to give the Tigers a three-run lead.

Andy Catellier replaced Norris and got the Blackbirds out of the inning with a strikeout and a groundout to first base after a single by Noah Poissant put runners on first and second.

Birds break through

The Blackbirds finally broke through for some runs in the bottom half of the sixth.

Lindner led off with a single but the next batter, Nick Duncan, flew out to centerfield. Steve Cardinal walked to put runners on first and second but R.J. Curreri hit a ground ball to the third baseman who tagged out Lindner as he tried to advance.

But Justin Arico came up big for the Birds with a double to centerfield that allowed Cardinal and Curreri to score.

Chris Massaroni followed with a single to drive in Arico and tie the game. After Nick Blow was hit by a pitch, Jay Conde grounded out to end the inning, but the Birds had come back and taken the momentum.

Catellier shut down the Tigers in the top half of the seventh despite giving up a lead-off single. He struck out two batters in the inning and got the other to pop out to Duncan at first base.
"Catellier came in and was big," Czerwinski said. "He finished the last three innings. He had been our DH [designated hitter] after he sprained his knee. But it’s been three weeks."

Catellier didn’t help himself in the bottom half of the inning as he grounded out, but Lindner followed with his triple and the little hit by Duncan, maybe the biggest kid on the field, gave the Birds the win and the league title.

Sure hitters
"Arico came through for us again," Czerwinski said. "He’s done that for three games in a row. I have confidence with my hitters — one through nine. Some teams, they are good through four or five then the other hitters are weaker. But not this team."

The Birds hit the ball well in the first five innings but they hit the ball right at a fielder.
"We were hitting the ball," Czerwinski said. "They had a freshman pitcher and he did an awesome job. In sectionals, we’ll face better pitching. We’ll have to hit the ball better period."

Czerwinski said that Norris did well but had just one bad inning.
"I wanted to give a senior a chance to pitch on campus," the coach said. "This is only our second game on campus. I had confidence in him; it was our field that hurt us.
"They did a smart thing by bunting," Czerwinski added. "They are a good team. They beat us before. Their record doesn’t show how good a team they are."

The Blackbirds have been playing their home games at the Swift Road Town Park in New Scotland for the past three seasons while a new field was being built at the school.

The Birds now will head into the sectionals with some momentum. They have won six of their last seven games — which they needed to do to win the league — and finished the regular season with a 15-7 overall record and a 12-6 mark in the Colonial Council.
"We’ll see what happens," Czerwinski said. "We got the cake and the rest is frosting. The Class B’s are stacked."