Adrean Post 625 2001 Oneida County Boxscores
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ADREAN POST 625
2001 ONEIDA COUNTY CHAMPIONS

Adrean 11 Whitestown 5
July 29, 2001 - BOONVILLE - When Adrean Post's Matt Devins was leading his team to an 8-0 lead over Whitestown Post yesterday, he looked like a brutal executioner. Then, in the fifth inning, when he made an error at shortstop that contributed in allowing Whitestown five runs and letting them back in the game, he looked like a benevolent governor ordering a stay of execution. But by the very next inning, all appeals were off, as the executioner returned and proceeded to finish off the courageous prisoner.

Devins, red hot in these playoffs, led Adrean Post to a 11-5 win over Whitestown Post in the Oneida County American Legion Baseball championship game held in Boonville.

Devins continued his assault on opposition pitchers by going four for four with three runs scored and five RBIs.

He administered the lethal injection to this heroic Whitestown gang in the sixth inning with his team leading 8-5, by smoking a Zack Hunter curveball to right field for a triple which scored two and made the score 10-5 and effectively, at least in the minds of Adrean, ended the Whitestown uprising. Andy Wengert, adding insult to injury, followed with a triple of his own to drive in Devins to make it 11-5.

"It was a low-outside curve," Devins said of Hunter's fateful pitch. "I was seeing the ball well and I just went with it the other way."

In the first inning, with Chris Darling on first, Devins laced a Whitestown starter, Frank Candella, fastball over the left field wall to give Adrean a 2-0 lead.

"Candella started me two curveballs that were balls outside so the count was 2-0 and I was looking for the fastball," Devins said. "And sure enough he threw it. It was a little inside and I hit it to left."

The never-give-up Whitestown crew rallied in the bottom of the fifth with five runs, helped by a rare Devins' miscue at short. Dave Jecko hit a two-run homer off Adrean starter, Frank DiBrango. Jeff Bostic then walked. Dan Kain then hit a hard grounder right at Devins who threw the ball over Adrean's second baseman, Chris Parkinson's head . Instead of ending the inning the table was set for more Whitestown mischief.

"It was an easy play," Devins said of the error. "He hit a rocket to me, and Chris was a little late getting to the bag and I just tossed it over his head. It was the start of a lot of commotion and really put a toll on DiBrango."

"I was thinking we should have been out of that inning with a 8-3 lead,"

Adrean head coach Steve Strife said. "DiBrango was cruising along until that error."

Andy Wengert relieved DiBrango and got the final out in the inning.

Whitestown manager Paul Engelhart had a different take on the matter. And given his team's penchant for comebacks, this was no surprise.

"I was thinking that we've been putting on some good late inning rallies lately, so sure, I thought we could come back," Engelhart said. "Candella pitched well, he hit his spots. It's just that they hit the heck out of the ball."

Adrean had 13 hits. Chris Parkinson was three for three for the winners.

Kudos to Engelhart and the Whitestown team who just two weeks ago appeared to be flat-lining. Like a great ER doctor, Engelhart never panicked, righted his patient and almost won the title for the second straight year.

And now it's on to the District 5 Tournament. And in the Cinderella world that is Oneida County American Legion baseball where the clock seemingly never strikes 12, four teams: Adrean, Whitestown, Smith, and Utica advance. So here's to the champions!

TEAM	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Adrean	2	0	2	1	3	3	0	X	X	11	12	3
Whitestown	0	0	0	0	5	0	0	X	X	5	6	2

Whitestown - Frank Candella 5 Zach Hunter 5 , Geoff Stewart - HR - 0 - 3B - 0 - 2B Candella Barbato Adrean - Frank Dibrango 5 Andy Wengert 5 , Sal Licari HR - Devins - 3B - 0 - 2B - Darling Wengert (2) Devins, Parkinson - DP - Whitestown - 0 Adrean 0

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Adrean 6 Whitestown 2
July 26, 2001 - SUNY Tech - In a winners bracket ballgame, Adrean Post defeated Whitestown Post 6-2 and earned a bye into the County Championship finals on Saturday at the Boonville Youth Athletic Complex.

While starting pitcher Curtis Schmidt took the loss, his performance on the mound stymied Adrean for the first 3 innings. Schmidt tossed a no hitter for 3 complete but was victimized by his own wildness in the first. In the bottom of the first Schmidt walked the first 3 batters he faced. He got Andy Wengert to ground into a fielders choice to score Nick Galiulo. With men on first and 3rd Bill Demma scored on a wild pitch to give Adrean a 2 run lead. While Adrean had opportunities to tack more runs on the board, Schmidt got out of potential run scoring jams.

In the 4th Whitestown mounted their only serious charge against Adrean Starting pitcher Josh White. White stuck out Dave Jecko for the first oput. Jeff Bostic singled and White got Dan Kain to hit into an apparent ground ball double play to Matt Devins but second baseman Chris Parkinson dropped the ball to keep the rally going. With men now on 1st and 2nd, Frank Candella lined a double down the left field line to score Bostic and put runners on 2nd and 3rd with 1 out. White then got schmidt to sacrifice to center leaving Candella on 2nd with 2 out. White then settled in to get Matt McLean to ground out to 3rd for the 3rd out of the inning.

In the bottom half of the 4th Adrean started off with a base hit by Andy Wengert and Sal LiCari. Frank Arcuri then sacrifiuced both runners over to set up a 2nd and 3rd with 1 out. Chris Darling then sacrificed deep to left field to score Wengert. Schmidt then toss a wild pitch to allow LiCari to score and give Adrean a 4-2 lead. White retired the sides in the 5th and Adrean then started to close out the game in the 5th when Chris Parkinson walked as did Galuilo. Bill Demma then layed down a drag bunt for a base hit to load the bases. Matt Devin then singled sharply to left to drive in Parkinson and Galuilo. On the next pitch Dan Kain made an outstanding diving play for Andy Wengerts hard hit ball in the hole and came up to throw Demma out at the plate for the 1st out of the inning. Whitestown then brought in Dave Farley to relieve Schmidt and Farley got Adrean out with a selection a good breaking pitches and good control.

Adrean now awaits the winner of the losers bracket game on Saturday afternoon

TEAM	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Whitestown	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	X	X	2	4	0
Adrean	2	0	0	2	2	0	X	X	X	6	5	1

Adrean - Josh White 7 , Sal LiCari - HR - 0 - 3B - 0 - 2B 0 Whitestown - Curtis Schmidt 5 Dave Farley 5 , Geoff Stewart HR - 0 - 3B - 0 - 2B - Frank Candella - DP - Adrean - 3 Whitestown 0

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Adrean 2 Helmuth-Ingalls 1
July 23, 2001 - Diss Field, Illion, NY - If you ask the guys from Adrean Post which team to look out for in the "Race for the RUG", and probably the next few years, they’ll all tip their hat to Helmuth-Ingalls. While poor base running prevented possible big inning from occurring, it was the outstanding pitching performance of young Ryan Mays that made the difference in keeping Adrean on the outside looking in until the 5th inning.

Mays showed a lot of poise and the ability to get big outs when it counted. Helmuth-Ingalls struck first on a series of brutal errors and poor decisions by Adrean veteran players. Jeremy Alden led off with a routine ground ball to second baseman Chris Parkinson. Parkinson, taking way too much time to throw the ball eventually overthrew first base. Sal LiCari , backing up the play, recovered the overthrow and had Alden by at least a half a base path also. LiCari froze and waited before he threw a strike to second but the fleet footed Alden beat the throw to second.

With a man on second and no outs and the score 0-0, Adrean starting pitcher Chris Darling stuck out Matt Battaglia to get the first out. Ty Moore then hit a soft ground ball to Frank Arcuri that Frank elected to go to first base instead of getting Alden in a rundown between 2nd and 3rd. That decision proved costly when the next ball was hit to Arcuri for the potential 3rd out and he booted the ball to allow the first run of the game to score. Darling then got Greg Chesboro to strike out. Adrean got on the board with a series of rookie errors that proved costly to Helmuth.

In the 5th Josh White struck out to lead off the inning and Chris Parkinson grounded out 5-3. Nick Galuilo then hit a base hit up the middle and promptly stole second base. A.J Oblak then hit a game tying base hit to right field scoring Galiulo. Mays then retired Matt Devins on a deep fly ball to center. In the meantime Chris Darling continued his dominate ways by giving up only 1 hit over the last 5 innings. In the bottom of the 6th Andy Wengert reached on an error by shortstop Alden. Sal LiCari then attempted to sacrifice Wengert and catcher Joe Poma overthrew second base allowing Wengert to go to third. LiCari tried to stretch the play into a double but was thrown out on the attempt for the 1st out of the inning.

Frank Arcuri the hit a soft fly ball to right field which Chesboro dropped allowing Wengert to score the second run for Adrean. Unaffected by the miscues, Mays nonetheless settled down and retired the sides by getting White to fly out and Parkinson to ground out. In the top of the 7th Chris Darling got Greg Chesboro to strike out, Justin Scacler to ground out to Wengert and Dan Olmstead to fly out to left field.

TEAM	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Helmuth	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	X	X	1	4	3
Adrean	0	0	0	0	1	1	X	X	X	2	6	4

Adrean - Chris Daling, Sal Licari- HR - 0 - 3B - 0 - 2B Andy Wengert Helmuth-Ingalls - Brian Mays, Joe Poma HR - 0 - 3B - 0 - 2B - 0 - DP - Adrean - 0 Helmuth-Ingalls 0