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Fredonia Gets Itself Back In Picture For Split Championship

By Matt Spielman 5 min read

FREDONIA -- Patience is a virtue.

On Monday, Fredonia's patience at the plate paid off in a huge way.

The Hillbillies waited out eight walks by Gowanda pitchers and got back in the race for a shared Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Athletic Association Division 1 baseball championship with a 13-3 five-inning victory over the Panthers at the Chestnut Street Field in the village.

Fredonia did most of its damage against Gowanda junior ace John Ondus, who struggled through 1 2/3 innings and walked seven while being charged with six of the runs allowed.

"He's an excellent pitcher. We wanted to focus early in the count on swinging at pitches we want," Fredonia head coach Tim Cowan said. "If he's going to paint the corner away for a first strike, we're going to let that happen and not try to get ourselves out."

Gabe Schrader walked to open the bottom of the second inning and stole a pair of bases, but back-to-back strikeouts had Ondus on the brink of getting out of the frame with no damage allowed.

But walks to No. 8 hitter Nathan Sercu and No. 9 hitter Jadon Whitfield brought up the top of the Hillbillies order.

A wild pitch allowed Schrader to score the first run and a walk to Simon Davis loaded the bases again before Micah Davis walked to force in another run. Owen Rush then walked to plate in the third run of the inning, spelling the end of the afternoon for Ondus.

Bryan Zynda relieved for Gowanda and Fredonia cleanup hitter Matt Cash came through with the biggest hit of the day, a bases-clearing, two-strike double.

"We really preach trusting the guy behind you. He's going to hit the way he is going right now, at any spot in the order," Cowan said of Cash. "Today it just happened to be at No. 4."

But the Hillbillies weren't done. Schrader singled ahead of Trevor Persch's RBI single and again the Panthers failed to make a play as an error prolonged the inning. Sercu made them pay with a two-run single before Zynda got out of the inning with a pop-out to his catcher.

"It's happened a couple of times. We've seen it before. It's baseball, anything can happen," Gowanda head coach Tim Smith said. "One bad inning kind of buried us there. You have to be able to kind of end it at some point. We kept kind of shooting ourselves in the foot. It happens and you have to move on."

Armed with a 9-0 lead Owen Ludwig -- who was unable to beat rival Dunkirk on Saturday afternoon -- kept the powerful Gowanda lineup at bay, striking out the side in the fourth inning.

"As I looked back at the stats, it really wasn't a poor performance (Saturday). … He challenged hitters. We made a couple of poor 0-2 pitches over the weekend," Cowan said. "I wouldn't say he made adjustments, he was just a little sharper today. When he got ahead, he wasn't trying to overthrow. He really focused on his location and that proved to be really important."

In the top of the fifth inning, the Panthers finally got on the board with four hits. Cole Herman and Smuda singled to open the frame and Drew Shull loaded the bases with a one-out single. Blake Herman then hit a sacrifice fly to shallow right field and Ondus hit a two-run double.

"The resiliency of this group is what makes them tought," Smith said. "This is a group of tough kids."

But with an evening concert waiting at the high school, the Hillbillies did not want to play a full seven innings. In their half of the fifth, Simon Davis hit a one-out double and Rush hit a two-out RBI double to make it 10-3.

"The reason we were able to extend our lead was guys throughout the order were able to get on, then Cash, Rush were able to drive them in," Cowan said. " … They were coming back. They were charging hard. For us to have another big inning in the bottom of the fifth to put it away was huge."

Cash then hit an RBI single before an error once again prolonged the inning, allowing Ludwig to eventually hit a walk-off, two-run single.

"It's really been a big deal to him to be a two-way player this year. He's worked really hard at it," Cowan said of Ludwig. " … He's really worked hard at the plate and at being able to be in the lineup on days he is not pitching. For him to have some big at-bats for us … to really sting one at the end was a good way to end it."

Fredonia (11-4-1, 10-3) now needs to beat Olean on Thursday and have Gowanda (13-5, 10-3) beat Southwestern (13-3, 11-2) for all three to share the league title.

"We're big Gowanda fans right now," Cowan said. "We have to take care of our own business. If we don't play well Thursday, it just doesn't matter."

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