OBSERVER Staff Report

SINCLAIRVILLE — The Chautauqua Lake Thunderbirds claimed another league win over Cassadaga Valley on Wednesday in CCAA Division 1 West league play, 4-1, behind stellar pitching from ace pitcher Kyler Majka.

In a complete game effort from the Chautauqua Lake senior pitcher, Majka struck out 15 batters over seven innings to earn the win. The one run charged against him was unearned.

“We survived today. There wasn’t a lot of energy from our team and we are lucky we were able to capitalize on some of their mistakes. Thankfully we had our ace on the mound and he was able to shut them down, but we can’t always rely on a lights out performance from our pitcher,” said Chautauqua Lake head coach Bryan Bongiovanni.

Chautauqua Lake jumped ahead 1-0 after an RBI single in the second inning by Zach Fischer to score Tate Olson. The Thunderbirds added another run in the third after a triple by Nate Engdahl and an RBI double to score him off the bat of Luke Waters. Fischer added a double in the fourth inning, then Majka followed with an RBI groundout to score Noah Webb. Waters then drove in Brendon Rowe with an RBI single in the fifth inning, marking the fourth straight inning that Chautauqua Lake pushed across a run.

“We had some nice at bats as the game progressed. Fischer had a couple of big hits to get us going and Nate Engdahl and Luke Waters had clutch hits as well. It wasn’t pretty, but right now it’s survive and advance,” said Bongiovanni.

Cassadaga Valley scored its run in the seventh inning after a walk to Adam Goot and an error later in the frame that brought him in to score.

Chautauqua Lake plays again today against Southwestern. Cassadaga Valley travels to Fredonia today to take on the division’s top team, the 8-0 Hillbillies.

Falconer 4, Silver Creek 3, 8 innings

FALCONER — The Silver Creek Black Knights battled back from an early 3-0 deficit to tie the game and force extra innings at Falconer on Wednesday, but Falconer still found a way to come out on top of the CCAA Division 1 West baseball game, 4-3, after a walk-off hit in the bottom of the eighth inning at Falconer High School.

Jedd Jaroszynski hit a two-out shot past a diving shortstop to score Matt Gullotti for the game’s winning run in walk-off fashion. Gullotti also earned the win in relief, after throwing four innings with five strikeouts and just allowing one hit.

Andre Rosario got the tough-luck loss for Silver Creek, despite throwing six shutout innings of relief before the eighth inning.

Chris VanCheri, Spencer Harford and Travis Drozdziel scored runs for Silver Creek, while Ethan Brunner and Rosario each had an RBI. Nate Abbey of Falconer had two hits, including a double.

Silver Creek hosts North Collins today in the Black Knights’ Senior Day game.