DANSVILLE - After spending nearly five hours at Babcock Park on Wednesday - which included a two-hour rain delay - and not being able to find a winner, it took a mere six minutes Thursday for Wayland Cohocton to end the Fredonia Hillbillies' season with an 8-7 victory in the Class B Far West Regionals.
The contest was postponed Wednesday with the score tied 7-7 after seven innings due to darkness. The two teams returned to the same field Thursday which meant a two-and-a-half hour bus trip back to Livingston County for Fredonia.
It seemed as if the bus ride had no impact on the Hillbillies early in the top half of the eighth inning as Brett Lutz drew a lead-off walk and moved to second on a Cameron Voss sacrifice bunt. A.J. Riforgiat reached on an error to move Lutz to third. With runners on the corners and one out, Fredonia's Nick Hart grounded into an inning-ending double play.
"I thought we showed up today," Fredonia coach Vince Gullo said. "We had a good warm up and a nice batting practice. We had two runners on in the eighth inning and we had the top of the order coming up and we didn't get a base hit. We were right there. We just didn't make it."
Wayland Cohocton's C.J. Ellis opened up the bottom of the eighth with a single and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Sam Wilkinson. Then Collin Burke hit a grounder to Weston Ley who bobbled the ball. Ley still had time to make the throw, but the throw was off target and allowed Ellis to race home with the winning run.
"We made a few mistakes (Wednesday) and we made a few today," Gullo lamented. "I'm proud of Trent (Thompson) to get back on the mound and gut it out. He got the groundballs he needed. That's the way baseball is."