FRANKLINVILLE — The North Collins Eagles and Franklinville Panthers came into Wednesday’s game with one loss in the CCAA East 2 division with the winner controlling its own destiny towards the crown. In a game with a lot of momentum changes and multiple errors by both teams, the Franklinville Panthers did enough to get through with a hard fought 9-5 victory.

Franklinville (5-1, 7-1) struck first with an unearned run in the first. Jacob Peters reached on an error and scored an RBI from Ben Mooney who also made it safely because of an error.

North Collins erupted for three runs in the third. Tanner Loretto and David Gullo both took advantage of errors by the third baseman. Brandon Zielinski made them pay with an RBI single, before Nick Woronowski came through with a two out, two run single.

Franklinville responded with two runs in the third to tie the game highlighted by Brock Blecha’s blast, a home run that cleared the fence by 20 feet.

The Panthers kept the momentum going in the fourth inning with another three runs. Vincent Marchese led the rally with a triple before Peters had a perfectly placed single for an RBI. Peters and Blecha would eventually score that inning from two errors on the same play where a failed throw out attempt on a steal led the ball to be thrown around the diamond.

The Eagles would chip away at the deficit with a run in the fifth and sixth innings. In the fifth, David Overhoff singled before Anthony Novoa’s single scored Overhoff. In the sixth, Tyler Mathis reached on an error before Overhoff hit his second single in as many innings to score Mathis. North Collins would force a few walks to load the bases, but a deep fly ball would end the threat.

Franklinville would put the game away in the sixth inning with three insurance runs. An error, followed by two walks would set up cleanup hitter Conner Burrell to hit a ground rule double to give the hosts two more runs before a wild pitch allowed Franklinville to get their ninth and final run of the game.

Brock Blecha pitched the first three innings for Franklinville, giving up three runs on three hits while striking out six. Isaac Kopp finished the last four innings, giving up two runs on five hits while fanning two.

“Brock is very efficient at pitching and I was hoping that he would go the whole game,” said Franklinville coach Mark Blecha. “He gave up a few hits so I put in Isaac and he did great. The best part is that we have both pitchers available to us for this upcoming weekend.”

Anthony Novoa gave a great effort in defeat, giving up nine runs (five earned) on six hits while striking out six. Brandon Zielinski came in to get the last two outs of the game.

David Overhoff and Anthony Novoa both had a multiple hit game for the Eagles, while Tyler Mathis had the only extra base hit with a double.

Franklinville was led by Conner Burrell’s three hits including a double. Blecha also added a home run while Marchese had a triple and Mooney chipped in with a double.

North Collins coach Scott Gill declined to comment regarding this game.

North Collins hosts Pine Valley tomorrow while Franklinville travels to Frewsburg.

“It is nice that we are able to control our path for the title,” said Blecha. “This is a step in the right direction, although we have a lot of work to do still with all the cancellations due to the weather. We play Frewsburg on Friday, Ellicottville on Saturday and a doubleheader against Pine Valley next week. We have to cram these games in a tight window, so we will see how this goes.”