On Saturday, Fredonia looked to come out on the right side against nonleague Gowanda, but the Panthers did not make it easy.

After adding three more runs in each of the last two innings, Fredonia built a 15-8 lead going into the bottom of the seventh inning. But Gowanda once again put on its rally caps to chase the Fredonia lead.

While only mustering up one hit in the bottom of the seventh, the Panthers still managed to find themselves with the winning run on base as Fredonia walked five batters and hit two to put Gowanda in a bases-loaded situation with two outs, trailing 15-13.

Despite two valuable innings from Brady Helmer on the mound, Fredonia turned to AJ Kinney to face Ben VanNote. Gowanda head coach Tim Smith hoped for more aggressive approaches at the plate with the bases loaded and VanNote came up swinging, but Kinney was able to win the final battle with a strikeout to secure the 15-13 win.

Gowanda’s Logan Ruff is congratulated by teammates after a solo home run in Saturday’s nonleague contest against Fredonia in Gowanda. P-J photo by Christian Storms

“AJ threw outstanding for us Tuesday at Depew, our intention was to rest him a couple more days,” Fredonia head coach Tim Cowan said. “I thought all three guys that threw first, Nate (Sercu), Bryce (Bacher) and Brady (Helmer) had good moments. But obviously we were struggling to just close the game, so thinking we could keep him to certainly a low pitch count, hopefully one batter. That is a tough situation, he came in with the winning run on base and was able to execute at a very high level.”

Despite plating five runs in the bottom of the seventh, Gowanda was never able to truly capitalize on at-bats with the bases loaded having to just settle for one run at a time.

“I think we took some bad approaches at the plate,” Gowanda head coach Tim Smith said. “Something that we try to talk about and sometimes it just doesn’t click. We want to get up there and hit the ball hard in that situation, we don’t want to look for walks, if it happens it happens, but I prefer to see us put something in play. That’s something that’s missing and we’ve got to try and figure that out.”

The first significant Fredonia lead that was established in the first two innings was cut down and surpassed by Gowanda in the fourth inning, but Kinney’s effort stopped the bleeding in the bottom of the seventh.

Fredonia set the tempo in the first inning when it scored four runs and eight batters stepped up to the plate. Ashton Putney doubled, Owen Rush collected the first of his five RBIs, Colin Luce scored on an Andrew Cowan RBI single and Cowan scored on a Kinney RBI double to go up 4-0.

While the Fredonia bats came up when they needed to, only Putney’s run was earned as Gowanda’s only two errors of the game occurred in the first inning and both reached home.

Fredonia added to its lead in the second inning and once again it was Rush swinging his big bat, this time crushing a two-run double that scored both Putney and Matt Cowan. Rush was not done there, collecting his final RBI in the fourth inning when he hammered a home run that increased Fredonia’s lead to 7-4.

That first Fredonia lead did not stand as Gowanda followed up its three-run third inning with four more in the fourth to jump ahead 8-7. The Panthers brought a big bat of their own to the plate when Logan Ruff led off the inning with a solo shot. A single from Landen Ashley, Brayden Smith being hit by a pitch and an RBI single from Drew Kota all resulted in runs. Kota brought in Ashley, Smith scored on a fielder’s choice by Seth Geiger and VanNote registered an RBI walk that scored Kota.

However, just like at the end of the game, when the bases were loaded Gowanda was unable to drive the ball for multiple runs and instead settled for walks that ended up costing the Panthers. After homering in his first at-bat that inning, Ruff popped out with the bases loaded to end the fourth.

“Kind of thought it would be an offensive output,” Smith said about the game. “It was back and forth, we fought, that’s a great thing. Up, down, we take a lead and I think at that point we’ve got to be able to play with a lead and we kind of gave it away right after that. I saw some guys in some spots we were looking for and trying to understand what we have looking forward.”

Fredonia didn’t let the offensive response from Gowanda slow down what it was trying to do as it continued to add runs in every inning for the remainder of the game. Perhaps no bigger run came than when Colin Crowell came in to pinch hit in the top of the seventh. Crowell made his one appearance at the plate count as he hammered a ball out to right field. Plating Nathan Sercu and himself proved to be the necessary runs to win the game.

“We knew no lead was safe,” Cowan stated. “We were kind of holding Colin Crowell back until the right moment and I just told him to be ready we’re going to put you in when you have the chance to make the biggest impact in the game and he did. He hit a two-run homer and in the end that was the difference in the game. I can’t take credit for that, it’s all him, but to come in cold off the bench and to take one swing to impact the game so dramatically it’s a testament to Colin.”

Fredonia (10-3) added a final run in the seventh and it came off an RBI triple by Putney that made the score 15-8.

Putney finished the game 2 for 3 and scored twice while hitting both a double and a triple; Matt Cowan collected two RBIs; Rush was 2 for 5 with five RBIs, Kinney singled, scored twice, walked three times and had an RBI; Crowell hit the home run; and Bacher had an RBI.

“We spend a great deal of time talking about which pitches to attack,” Cowan said. “It’s one thing to talk about it and it’s another to execute. What’s been nice to see consistently is that the decisions they’re making at the plate are having an impact, it just encourages them to kind of double down on that. We’re picking pitches to go get, we’re aggressive and it’s contagious. When Ashton and Owen toward the top of the order start knocking around the ball a bit the rest of the guys in the order follow suit.”

Gowanda (11-2) pushed its former CCAA Division 1 foe to the limit thanks to Carter Capozzi, who doubled and finished 2 for 3 with two RBIs and two walks. Kota scored three times while going 2 for 3 with two RBIs; Geiger managed four RBIs; and Brayden Smith scored four times.

Rising to the occasion for Gowanda when it mattered most was Madden Lay coming up with an RBI double in his only appearance in the bottom of the seventh inning.

“We have to set these games up as we get closer to playoffs and play better teams,” Smith said about competitive nonleague games. “Obviously, Fredonia is having a great season and it turns out to be a perfect game for this. As far as what we’re looking for here, we wanted to get five or six pitchers and try to figure out who we’re going to be able to trust over the next couple weeks going into sectionals.”