OBSERVER Photo by Joe Conti Silver Creek’s Spencer Harford pitches against Chautauqua Lake on Tuesday. Harford was the winning pitcher and gave up just one hit in five innings of work.

SILVER CREEK — The Silver Creek Black Knights won their second CCAA West 1 league game in as many days as they were able to defeat the Chautauqua Lake Thunderbirds 7-3 on Tuesday night.

Silver Creek was able to pay attention to the little details, being strong on the bases, as they scored in every inning except the second.

After getting three quick outs, Silver Creek battled hard to get two runs in the bottom half of the first. After a hit batter, Sam Mullen blasted a double that hit the fence in center field. Alex Bogosian then came through with an RBI single up the middle. Tom Galfo was able to use his speed as he contributed with an RBI single. Chautauqua Lake ended the inning with a perfectly executed double play with the Thunderbirds cutting down the force at home before catcher Bryce Rowe turned the play with a perfectly thrown ball to first.

In the third inning, Stephen Romanik reached on an error for the Black Knights. After a wild pitch brought Romanik to second, Mullen hit an RBI single to bring Romanik around for another run. Kyler Majka was then able to settle in with three consecutive strikeouts to end the inning for Chautauqua Lake.

“We dug ourselves a hole early and we weren’t able to recover,” said Chautauqua Lake coach Bryan Bongiovanni. “Kyler battled for us on the mound today, but we struggled at making routine plays which put us in some tough situations.”

Chautauqua Lake (2-2, 2-3) was able to get its first run in the fourth. After Luke Walters received a free pass, Bryce Rowe’s single brought Walters around to third where he eventually scored on a wild pitch.

Silver Creek was able to respond with two runs of their own in the bottom half of the inning. Two walks earlier in the inning put Chautauqua Lake in another tough situation and Romanik took advantage of it with a two run RBI double.

“Steve is one of our most heavy ball players,” said Silver Creek coach Mike Janisch. “He seems like he is always in the right spot at the right time no matter where he is on the field and does a great job at pulling through for us.”

One run was traded in the fifth inning for the two teams, but they both left the bases loaded. Chautauqua Lake used four walks and an error to score Austin Strong before pitcher Spencer Harford recorded another strikeout to get out of the inning.

“That was a big part of the game that Spencer was able to get us out of,” said Janisch.

“He pitched real well,” Janisch continued. “He was tired in the fifth when he threw around 75 pitches, but he was able to get us out of trouble. When we have six games in six days, you really need to get a lot out of your pitchers and that was done tonight by Spencer.”

A similar thing happened to Silver Creek in the bottom half as Zach Rybak scored its run from four consecutive walks. Devin Pope came in to get a strikeout to end the inning.

Silver Creek (2-3, 2-4) added an insurance run in the sixth as Romanik walked and eventually scored on a wild pitch. The Thunderbirds added a run in the seventh to close the gap. Pope led off with a single and scored later in the inning on an RBI groundout by Kyler Majka.

Harford received the win for the Black Knights as he gave up two runs in five innings from one hit and six walks while striking out four. Mullen pitched the last two innings in relief, giving up one run on two singles while striking out two.

Majka pitched great in defeat, giving up six runs (four earned) in 4.2 innings. He gave up six hits and seven walks while striking out six. Pope also pitched well in 1.1 innings of work, giving up one run from one walk while striking out two.

Mullen led the Black Knights with three hits including a double. According to Janisch, “Sam is starting to heat up and doing a great job at the plate. He also had three hits yesterday as well. It is great to have him back after taking an early season vacation.”

Pope, Rowe and Joe Gustafson had the only three hits for the Thunderbirds, which were all singles.

“As a team, we did not make the simple plays that we needed to today,” said Bongiovanni. “Even though we made some good plays, there were too many times the simple plays were not made. Unfortunately, a good team like Silver Creek was able to take advantage of those mistakes.”

Both teams play a league game against Fredonia next with Chautauqua Lake hosting the Hillbillies today while Silver Creek travels to Fredonia Thursday.

MONDAY

SILVER CREEK 14, FALCONER 3

Bogosian drove in four runs with a double and a triple as Silver Creek defeated Falconer.

Mullen had three hits with a triple, Jon Hover had three hits with two doubles and Hartford drove in four runs with a pair of singles in the win.

Rybak went four innings and struck out seven and walked three in picking up the win.

For Falconer, Ben Schrader drove in two runs with a pair of singles and Bob Samuelson also had two hits.