OLEAN, N.Y. — If the Olean Oilers turn around their struggling start to this New York Collegiate Baseball League season and earn a spot in the playoffs, it’s likely they will focus on the past two days.
After a doubleheader loss to the Niagara Power, 2-1 and 14-0, Monday afternoon, Olean was 4-10-1 and in last place in the NYCBL in both record and points.
Their season seemed over barely a third of the way in.
But on Tuesday, the Oilers went to Hornell and handled the Dodgers, currently holding the Western Division’s last playoff spot, 11-5.
They followed it last night against the same team before 407 witnesses at Bradner Stadium, in perfect weather, with a 5-3 victory.
A pair of encouraging results come out of Olean’s sweep of the Dodgers.
First, the Oilers (6-10-1) rediscovered their bats, totaling 26 hits in the twin wins over Hornell.
Second, given the NYCBL’s new point format for determining the playoffs, Olean effectively had an eight-point swing against the Dodgers … earning four points in the two wins and preventing Hornell from adding four points of its own.
Going into Tuesday’s game, the Dodgers had 15 points, the Oilers 9. Today, Hornell still has 15 and Olean is at 13, though having played two more games.
BRIAN O’CONNELL JR., the Oilers owner/manager, was as encouraged by his team’s hitting outburst — 15 on Tuesday, 11 last night — as he was the two wins.
“This team has the talent and I’ve been saying that from the beginning,” O’Connell, a personal injury attorney, pointed out. “(But) after those two losses against Niagara … the 2-1 game and then when they blew us out, I’ll really lit the team up (verbally) and probably said some things I couldn’t say in the courtroom.
“I told them they need to change their attitude at the plate. Our biggest problem so far, in my mind, has been our lack of offense … the pitching has been decent — yes, we’ve let in a few here and there — but when you can’t score runs (Olean lost three shutouts by a combined score of 40-0 in a span of six games), everything sort of goes from there.”
He continued, “I instituted mandatory swings the game before we played in Hornell. We had tee work and cage work at St. Bonaventure before we actually went to Hornell and I pitched batting practice (there) and told them before the game that it was the best batting practice I’d seen them have.
“And you could see it … we jumped out yesterday (up 5-0 and 8-2) and we tried to build on that. We jumped out tonight (3-0, four hits in the first six batters), had a lull, then got the insurance run which we needed.”
O’Connell admitted, “I think it’s coming along. We’ve only won two games in a row but the approach has been better. The talent’s here, but the players need to understand that you can’t do everything with one swing … you’ve got to bunt, move that runner over and each guy has to buy into what we’re doing to score these runs.”
Indeed Olean plated the eventual winning run on a perfectly-executed squeeze bunt by shortstop Branden Myers (St. Bonaventure).
“Coach (Eric) Hemphill made the ideal call and that was the go-ahead run,” O’Connell admitted.
For Olean, Dylan Vincent (Olean High/Canisius) had three hits and Mason Nadolney (2 RBI, Jacksonville) and Jacob Victor (Canisius) had two each.
The trio of Murphy O’Brien (St. Bonaventure), the winning pitcher, Ian Concevitch (Savannah St.) and Nate Beimel (Columbia), who got a two-inning save, combined to strike out 10 and walk two.
For Hornell (7-7-1), Chris Herb (Kansas State) had three hits and Andrew Littlefield (Hanover) and Josh Laurie (Alfred State) added two each.
“Our starters are really throwing the ball (well), we’ve found some middle (inning) guys and Nate Beimel is kind of working his way into a closing role for us,” O’Connell said. “As the season progresses, guys’ roles become more defined and hopefully we can keep this going.”
