HORSEHEADS, NY - Pioneer baseball battled to a Sunday split with Elmira yesterday after mother nature caused them to shift the bulk of their series to the second of the two days. Utica took the first game on Sunday (game two of the series) in a tight affair, scoring two runs in the top of the seventh to steal a 12-11 victory. In the series finale, the team battled back but eventually ran out of gas, picking up their first Empire 8 loss of the season by a 10-5 decision.
 
Sunday's opening matchup was a wild affair, with the two teams producing three ties and four lead changes within the span of the seven-inning outing. The game contained a combined run total of 23, with the squads scoring nine out of 14 possible innings.
 
The Pioneers would take a 3-0 lead early thanks to a two RBI double off the bat of Micah Fiorello (Brooktondale, NY/Ithaca), directly followed by an RBI single by a recently surging Steve Sclafani (North Massapequa, NY/Farmingdale) to plate Fiorello.
 
The early lead would be short lived though, as the Soaring Eagles struck for six runs in the bottom of the second, responding by creating a sizeable lead.
 
Utica would be able to chip away though, scoring in all but one inning throughout the final five frames of the first game, including big innings in the fourth and seventh.
 
Beginning in the third, Luca Logan (Bayonne, NJ/St. Peters Prep) began the comeback effort for the Pioneers, injecting some energy into the lineup with a solo shot to drag a run back. Max Gambitta (Cortland, NY/Cortland) would double down for the orange and blue in the inning following Logan's shot, going yard for his own solo homer to keep hacking away at the Soaring Eagle advantage.
 
The game was really turned on its head when Ty Montrose (Whitesboro, NY/Whitesboro) stepped to the plate in the fourth inning, belting a ball out to center field and managing to cash in 3 RBI with a big double to center field to vault the Pioneers out to an 8-7 lead.
 
Montrose then further solidified his spot as the game's standout star, launching a ball in the sixth to notch the Pioneer's third home run of the game while also picking up his fourth and fifth RBI's of the contest to get Utica out to a 10-8 lead.
 
Elmira would battle back, with a homer of their own leveling the matchup in the sixth before they stole the lead late in that same inning thanks to some timely hitting.
 
Utica would swoop in during the seventh inning though, capitalizing on some Elmira miscues as Fiorello once again came up big with an RBI double before the Pioneers took the lead back at 12-11 thanks to an error by the Soaring Eagle third basemen. After all the chaos, the Pioneers had the lead heading into the final inning.
 
In the end, it was Jack Krug (Rotterdam Junction, NY/Canajoharie) who entered the game for the Pioneers with a chance to seal the deal. The Canajoharie grad gave up two runs in the sixth, but battled back hard in the face of adversity as he held onto the one-run lead in the seventh to escape with his first pitching win of the season. The 12-11 victory was the Pioneers' fourth-straight win, momentarily keeping them undefeated in Empire 8 play with a 4-0 record.
 
In game two, the Pioneers once again suffered from a slow start, spotting the Soaring Eagles four runs in the first frame. The team would rally shortly after though, with a Kody Czternastek (Whitesboro, NY/Whitesboro) RBI single and an Eric Schulteisz (North Babylon, NY/North Babylon) three-run homer leveling the playing field after just the second inning.
 
In the ensuing inning, Michael Flint (Rome, NY/Rome Free Academy) would momentarily give the Pioneers their first lead of game two, using an RBI single to center field to run the tally to 5-4 Utica.
 
The Pioneers would struggle to score over the rest of the game though, with Elmira tacking on runs in the third, fifth, and seventh to shoot ahead and prevent a weekend sweep.
 
Czternastek piled up the most hits for the Pioneers over the two-game slate with three base knocks. Montrose also had the team-high in RBI over that span with 5. They also had great contributions from Fiorello and Schulteisz who each recorded a trio of RBI.
 
The Pioneers moved to 9-5-1 with the Sunday split, running their Empire 8 record to 4-1. They'll match up with Russell Sage and Alfred this week with five more conference contests on the horizon.