Fredonia's Owen Rush is met by teammates after hitting a two-run home run against Gowanda on Saturday in nonleague action. OBSERVER Photo by Christian Storms

GOWANDA — Friday evening saw the Fredonia Hillbillies baseball team come out on the wrong side of a high scoring game, falling to Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Athletic Association Division 1 opponent Olean 10-7. Then on Saturday, Fredonia looked to come out on the right side against Gowanda, but the Panthers did not make it easy.

After adding three more runs in each of the last two innings, Fredonia had built a 15-8 lead going into the bottom of the seventh inning, but Gowanda once again put on its rally caps to chase another Fredonia lead. While only mustering up one hit in the bottom of the seventh, the Panthers still managed to find themselves with the winning run on the bases as Fredonia walked five batters and hit two to get in a bases loaded situation with two outs trailing 15-13.

Despite two valuable innings from Brady Helmer on the mound, Fredonia turned to AJ Kinney to face Ben VanNote. Gowanda head coach Tim Smith hoped for more aggressive approaches at the plate with the bases loaded and VanNote came up swinging, but Kinney was able to win the final battle with a strikeout to secure the 15-13 nonleague win.

The first significant Fredonia lead that was established in the first two innings was cut down and surpassed by Gowanda in the fourth inning, but Kinney’s effort stopped the bleeding in the bottom of the seventh.

Fredonia set the tempo in the first inning when it scored four runs and eight batters stepped up to the plate. Ashton Putney doubled, Owen Rush collected the first of his five RBIs, Colin Luce scored on an Andrew Cowan RBI single and Cowan scored on a Kinney RBI double to go up 4-0.

Gowanda's Carter Capozzi connects for an RBI double in Saturday's nonleague baseball game against Fredonia. OBSERVER Photo by Christian Storms

While the Fredonia bats came up when they needed to, only Putney’s run was earned as Gowanda’s only two errors of the game occurred in the first inning and both reached home.

Fredonia added to its lead in the second inning and once again it was Rush swinging his big bat, this time crushing a 2 RBI double that scored both Putney and Matt Cowan. Rush was not done there, collecting his final RBI in the fourth inning when he hammered a home run that increased Fredonia’s lead to 7-4.

That first Fredonia lead did not stand as Gowanda followed up its three-run third inning with four more in the the fourth to jump ahead 8-7. The Panthers brought a big bat of their own when Logan Ruff led off the inning with a solo shot of his own; a single from Landen Ashley, Brayden Smith hit by a pitch and an RBI single from Drew Kota all resulted in runs.

Kota brought in Ashley, Smith scored on a fielder’s choice by Seth Geiger and VanNote registered an RBI walk that scored Kota.

However, just like at the end of the game, when the bases were loaded Gowanda was unable to drive the ball for multiple runs and instead settled for walks that ended up costing them. After homering in his first at bat that inning, Ruff popped out with the bases loaded to end the fourth.

Fredonia's Ashton Putney, left, high fives teammate Matt Cowan after the pair was driven in by an Owen Rush double in Saturday's nonleague game against Gowanda. OBSERVER Photo by Christian Storms

Fredonia didn’t let the offensive response from Gowanda slow down what it was trying to do as it continued to add runs in every inning for the remainder of the game and perhaps no bigger run came than when Colin Crowell came in to pinch hit in the top of the seventh. Crowell made his one appearance at the plate count as he hammered a ball out over right field and plating Nathan Sercu and himself proved to be the necessary runs to win the game.

Fredonia (10-3) added a final run in the seventh and it came off an RBI triple by Putney that made the score 15-8.

Putney finished the game 2 for 3 and scored twice while hitting both a double and a triple, Matt Cowan collected 2 RBIs, Rush 2 for 5 with 5 RBIs, Kinney was 1 for 1 with two runs scored, three walks and an RBI, Crowell hit a home run and Bryce Bacher hit in an RBI.

Gowanda (11-2) pushed former CCAA Division 1 foe to the limit thanks to Carter Capozzi who hit a double and finished 2 for 3 with 2 RBIs and two walks, Kota scored three times while going 2 for 3 with 2 RBIs, Geiger managed 4 RBIs and Brayden Smith scored four times.

Rising to the occasion for Gowanda when it mattered most was Madden Lay coming up with an RBI double in his only appearance in the bottom of the seventh inning.

Gowanda's Logan Ruff is congratulated by teammates after a solo home run in Saturday's nonleague contest against Fredonia. OBSERVER Photo by Christian Storms