Baseball: Batavia routs Geneva

Things didn't necessarily begin very promising for Batavia's baseball team Tuesday afternoon.

Over-aggressiveness on the bases might have cost the Bulldogs a scoring opportunity in the top of the first inning against host Geneva.

The play was long forgotten by game's end, however.

Senior Tyler Kledzik lined a 3-run home run to highlight a 5-run second inning, and the Bulldogs (11-7, 5-5) batted around twice during a 12-run fourth-inning explosion on their way to an 18-3, 5-inning triumph over Upstate Eight Conference River Division rival Geneva (16-7, 9-4).

"I don't know where that came from," joked Batavia coach Matt Holm. "We've been in a little bit of a lull.

"If you think you're on a roll, you're on a roll. If you think you're in a slump, you're in a slump and we've kind of been in one."

Andrew Costigan's RBI double got the Bulldogs on the board in the second off Geneva starting pitcher Bryan Callaly before Jimmy Roach's 2-out bloop single drove in Costigan to make it 2-0.

After a single by Luke Beckmann (4 for 4), Kledzik's 3-run home run upped the lead to 5-0.

"He has been in a slump so it was nice for him to get out of that," Holm said of Kledzik. "He was hitting right around .500 when we moved him to the three-spot to pick up RBI and he dropped off a little bit. It was nice to have him get back on today."

Matt Simpson's RBI single got the Vikings on the board in bottom of the second before the Bulldogs put on an offensive show in the top of the fourth.

Eight straight batters reached base - including 5 consecutive hits - to extend the lead to 14-1 before junior pitcher Glenn Albanese helped his own cause by clubbing a 3-0 pitch over the left-center fence for a 3-run home run to make it 17-1.

"Normally, we'll take on that (3-0 pitch) but I looked over at Coach Beck (assistant coach Alex Beckmann) and he didn't give me a sign so I looked at Coach Holm and he just pointed up in the air," said Albanese.

That is exactly where Albanese deposited the baseball.

"I was seeing the ball well today," said Albanese, who went 3 for 3 with a pair of walks and 5 RBI.

The right-hander improved his record to 4-2, allowing 1 earned run on 5 hits through 5 innings with 6 strikeouts.

"I didn't have my best stuff today but obviously when you get 18 runs like that it gives you a lot more confidence," said Albanese.

Ben Lynam went 3 for 5 with 3 RBI, while Joe Burke and Costigan combined to finish 5 for 5 with 4 RBI for the Bulldogs.

A.J. Hostman and Vince MacDonald added RBI for the Vikings.

"I appreciated the fact that they played hard the whole game and didn't back down from Glenn (Albanese)," said Geneva coach Matt Hahn. "That's probably the best pitcher we'll see all year.

"I told the guys when we get done doing our field jobs (postgame raking and cleaning), that's the last we speak of this game."