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One win away

North Collins to play in Class D title game with 8-2 victory

BINGHAMTON — The North Collins Eagles advanced to the New York State Public High School Athletic Association championship game with an 8-2 win over SS Seward of Section IX Friday.

With the win, the Eagles take on Fort Ann today at 1 p.m. for the state title.

The Eagles (15-5) came out strong, scoring two runs in the bottom of the first inning. Dylan Winter led things off with a single. Brandon Zielinski then came through with the big hit of the day — an RBI triple to score Winter. Later in the inning, Zielinski scored on a sacrifice fly by Nathan Turnbull.

North Collins added another run in the fourth inning. After Harley Mehnert was hit by a pitch, Nick Woronowski’s single advanced Zielinski to second. After a wild pitch moved both runners up 90 feet, Josh Schmit came through with a sacrifice fly to give the Eagles a 3-0 lead.

Starting pitcher Trevor Mercado pitched great early on, giving up just two hits during the first four innings. The fifth inning was the only inning when SS Seward (13-10) could get anything going offensively. Jason Harty led the rally with a single. After an error and a free pass, Matt Mulhart came through with a two run single. That concluded the day for Mercado as he pitched 4 1/3 innings, giving up two runs (one earned) on four hits while giving up five walks and striking out five.

See BASEBALL, Page B3

Brandon Zielinski came in with one out and runners on second and third. He struck out the first batter he faced then forced an easy groundout to end the threat.

“Trevor did a great job at the beginning of the game,” North Collins coach Paul Kellner said. “He mixed up his pitches and his curve worked well to get many easy outs. During the middle innings, he has struggled as of late. Brandon did a great job to get us out of the threat.”

North Collins immediately responded with an offensive outburst in the bottom of the fifth. Winter led off with a single. After Zielinski reached on an error, Turnbull had a hard hit single to load the bases. Harley Mehnert walked to give the Eagles a 4-2 lead. The inning was highlighted by Woronowski’s two-run double on a hard-hit ball that reached the outfield fence. Schmitt then had an RBI groundout to score Mehnert. Trevor Mercado finished off with an RBI single to give the Eagles their fifth and final run of the inning, giving them an 8-2 lead.

“The fifth inning was the key changing point of the game,” Kellner stated. “Brandon came in and stopped their rally, then we came right back and scored those runs which pushed the lead to an amount that they could not recover from. We could have been reeling if we did not score there.”

Zielinski continued his quality pitching, backed by great defense to get the last six outs of the game. To end the game, North Collins turned its second double play of the game as Dylon Mercado caught a fly ball at third, then threw the ball to get the runner out at second.

According to Kellner, “We played much better defensively (Friday). We really did not have any critical errors. There were a few bad bounces that were difficult to handle, but in general, the effort was there.”

Zielinski pitched 2 2/3 scoreless innings in relief giving up only one hit while striking out four.

SS Seward pitcher Grant Gravelle was credited with the loss, giving up eight runs on seven hits.

North Collins had a strong performance by the entire lineup.

“We had great production by the entire lineup,” said Kellner. “The bottom third of the order came through when we needed them to with quality at bats including five RBI’s.”

Winter led the offense with three singles while Woronowski also had a multiple hit game.

North Collins plays today at Binghamton University at 1 p.m against Fort Ann of Section 2.

“We watched them play about five innings,” Kellner said. “They are a great team, but we have a good team ourselves. It should be a close game and a lot will depend on who makes the big plays or the fewer mistakes. This is great to be part of and the boys are really deserving of this opportunity. Brandon is still eligible to pitch tomorrow with the new pitch count rules and hopefully he will be fresh and effective.”

The Eagles hope to win their first baseball state title as the only state title North Collins has is a boys soccer championship in 1993.

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