Power Rally At Home, Come Up Short vs Geneva

Baseball is a game that can often come down to just one pitch, that was the case for the Niagara power Tuesday night. On an evening full of positive energy... Frank Polino, the recently injured catcher, was back in the ballpark, a game weather reports indicated was likely to be rained was played with completely clear skies, and a large crowd showed up to support a Power team which had experience a very difficult start to the week... Niagara (10-12) saw its losing streak extended to a season high five games. 

RC Hubbard (2-2) fought hard through an outing in which he did not have his best stuff to work with on the mound. While the Niagara starter put a series of zeros on the board in most of his five plus innings, it was a single hanging curveball in the second frame that provided all the offense the Geneva Twins would need.  

After a single and a couple of free passes loaded the bases in the second inning, the Twins nine hole hitter Harrison Gioul drove the 3-2 offering into the left-centerfield gap to clear the bases and give Geneva an early 3-0 lead. They would add only one more run, also driven in by Giuoul in the 6th. Niagara battled back with a pair of runs in the bottom of the 7th, but in the end Gioul’s early blow proved to be enough.  

Seth Eller was excellent for the second straight appearance in relief, once again giving Niagara a chance by pitching scoreless inning after scoreless inning. The problem for the Power was a familiar one, stranded runners. The team left seven men on base, including three runners ninety feet away at 3rd. This pushed their total to 41 runners left on base during the five game losing streak. The team continued to battle in spite of their difficulty driving in runs, yet when all was said and done, the Power had fallen by a score of 4-2. 

Sometimes the ball just isn’t bouncing your way. That has literally been the case for the Hyde Park Crew this week. There is, however, plenty of time remaining for Niagara to right the ship. With 22 NYCBL games in the books, they have 18 games remaining to secure one of the division’s four playoff spots. After a scheduled day off to celebrate our nation’s birth, the Power will be back in action on both Thursday and Friday nights at Sal Maglie Stadium.