CARROTS
For Williamsville East baseball, it’s about carrots. It’s a term coach Jerry Gasz came up with, and the players aren’t sure of the meaning behind it, but they’ve gone along with it, and so far it’s worked.
“At the beginning of the year, we set three carrots for ourselves,” Mike Steffan explained. “The first carrot was to win the division. The second was the section, and the third is a state title. And so far, we’ve won the first one, and we’re on the road for the second one.”
The most recent step on the road to the second carrot was a 5-2 win over North Tonawanda on Friday afternoon (May 20). Northtown Tonawanda led the Flames 1-0 and then 2-1 before Williamsville East finally tied the game and took the lead in the bottom of the fifth when Charlie Mack tripled to lead off the bottom of the inning and scored on a wild pitch and Ryan Foster scored Joe Mack with an RBI double after Joe’s third walk of the game (he finished with four).
“We were really focused today,” Charlie Mack said. “It was all about baseball today.”
“We were solid defensively,” added Steffan. “We weren’t hitting that well at the beginning, but we needed to make up for it on defense, and we did that.”
The Flames’ game began at 2 pm and ended around 4:30, so they didn’t know for sure their opponent in the next round until the conclusion of Williamsville South and McKinley’s game, which began at 5 pm Friday. But they predicted that it would be district rival South, and they were correct.
BILLIES
Williamsville South’s game against McKinley couldn’t have been more different from East’s contest against NT.
The Billies began their scoring with two runs in the first inning and followed that up with seven in the second. They didn’t stop until they’d slammed the Macks with 13 runs while allowing just two.
“We knew it was a must win, and we knew that we didn’t really know anything about them,” said Jack Holyoke. “It was kind of an unknown game, but we took care of business, and the rest is history.”
“We just kind of went in not knowing much about who we were gonna play,” added Jordan Buell. “We’re just focused on one game at a time, so it’s good to get a win out here today.”
“Just working on hitting the ball, getting better with our offense,” said Owen Maley. “If we want to make a run, we need to improve on that.”
Every Billie got a chance to play on Friday, and everyone did his part to contribute to the win.
“Twenty-five guys got in, so everyone was able to come out here and give something to the team,” Buell said. “So as a whole, we played pretty well.”
“Yeah, everyone contributed and as you can see, the outcome was pretty good, and I was satisfied with everyone’s play today,” agreed Holyoke.
But their minds might have been somewhere else as the Billies looked forward to Monday’s rivalry matchup.
“We’re just ready for Monday; we’re just ready for that,” said Maley.
EAST VS. SOUTH
For both teams, it all comes down to Monday’s Class A1 semifinal game, which is scheduled for 4:30 pm at Williamsville East, if they want their respective seasons to continue. Both have had strong seasons with two or fewer league losses each.
For East, it was an 11-1 record in league play with the only loss coming in the first game of league play. The Flames’ success, according to Steffan, has come from their unselfish play.
“I’d say that our biggest strength is playing as a team,” Steffan said. “At bat, we move runners and aren’t selfish, doing whatever it takes to get a run. We pick each other up at the plate and in the field, and we know that our teammates always have our back, which builds our confidence and makes us a tough team to beat.”
The key to more success?
“To win, we need to limit the number of walks and errors in the field and make them earn all their runs,” said Steffan. “If we do that, get some timely hits, and put constant pressure on them with a lot of base runners, I think we have a good chance of winning.”
South finished league play with a 10-2 record, with both losses suffered against East. But the Billies are far from discouraged as they look ahead to Monday. Their success, according to Joe Zanelotti, came because of their strong defense.
“It’s what keeps us in games when we don’t hit as well as we should,” Zanelotti said. “Some of the plays the guys make are amazing.”
The key to success for South on Monday?
“Hitting,” Zanelotti said. “We’ve shown that we can hit really well. All year there have been times where we’re unstoppable at the plate and times where we’re invisible. I believe if we hit well tomorrow, it’ll give us a strong chance to win.”
“We’re just gonna play our game,” Holyoke said. “It’s baseball; you never know what’s gonna happen. It’s a game of the unknown, our coach says every single game. So we don’t really know what’s gonna happen. We just gotta go out there and play our game.”
Holyoke and Zanelotti, along with Buell and Maley, are four of eight seniors on this year’s team, and they don’t want their time playing together to end anytime soon.
“We’ve had the same core people that we’ve been playing with since little league,” Maley said after Friday’s game, which was the last home game for South. “We’re gonna miss playing with them on this field, but we’ve got bigger things ahead.”
Be sure to follow @MelissaBrawdy on Twitter for live updates of Monday’s game.