Bath belts West to move to 2-0
BY BOB BENZ THE LEADER

ERIC WENSEL/THE LEADER Bath Haverling baserunner Cody Bryce gets tagged out by Corning West 's Mike Speroni while catcher Steve Hanshaw moves to cover, ending a suicide squeeze.

PAINTED POST - Following a 5-for-6 effort at the plate against Corning West Tuesday, April 3, Bath Haverling's Montana Yastremski now boasts a ridiculous .900 batting average (9-for-10) through two games this season.

Hitting out of the No. 8 spot in the Bath lineup, Bill Crowe reached base five times, while going 4-for-6 with two RBIs and two runs scored.

Mike Rossi inflicted similar damage in Bath's 21-3 rout of West with both his bat and right arm. Rossi fanned seven and gave up just five hits in five innings of work to pick up the win, while putting together a 3- for-6 effort at the plate, which included a double, two runs scored and three RBIs.

And if somehow, you're still not impressed, consider Yastremski, Crowe and Rossi are each sophomores.

"It was a good day allaround for us - we couldn't do much wrong," Bath head coach Bob Buckley said. "This group of young men have put the time in and the effort in trying to learn how to hit and the sophomores I have were a good group as Little Leaguers and they're willing to learn and that's the best part of all."

One day after West opened its season with a convincing 8-2 victory over Elmira Free Academy, the Rams lit up the Vikings for 24 hits - nine of which came during a marath on 10-run third inning.

"We came out and we were hitting the ball right on the nose," Buckley said. "When you hit line drives they just find the holes and that's what happened - we got ahead early, guys could relax I think and it made a big difference."

"It was disappointing in the fact that I thought the intensity would be a little more than it was," West head coach Lou Condon said. "It just wasn't there and you have those days."

In addition to dealing with Bath's white-hot bats,

the Vikings were plagued with seven errors - all of which were recorded in the first four innings.

"You've got to make the routine plays, you've got to make good pitches, you've got to throw strikes and when you're consistent all the time, then you're gonna be a success and we weren't consistent," Condon said. "We started the game off with kind of lackadaisical sort of attitude and it kind of multiplied, but we'll get better."

The game began ominously for the Vikings when Bath's leadof f bat ter reached on an error. The Rams capitalized scoring six runs in the first as Rossi got the ball rolling, smoking a two-run single to right. Irv Pragle and Crowe also added RBI singles in the first.

Pragle made the most of his three at-bats, going 3- for-3 with three RBIs and two runs scored.

Leading 6-0, the Rams blew the game open by sending 16 batters to the plate in the third inning. Yastremski - who finished with two doubles, two RBIs and four runs scored - led off the third with a checkswing

single to right.

After some careless play in the field by West, helped Bath increase its lead to 11- 0, Rossi made it 12-0 after roping an RBI double to left. Yastremski scored twice in the third and came up with an RBI single, while teammate Brett Havens scored one of his three runs on the game in the third.

Havens also had a big day, going 3-for-5 with two RBIs.

West got on the board in the bottom of the third when Matt Costello ripped a two-run single to right to score Zach Phillips and Josh Murdough. Phillips reached on an error and Murdough smashed a single to center. The Vikings cashed in on a two-out rally in the fourth as Phillips knocked in Mike Speroni with an RBI single. Speroni and Steve Hanshaw each kept the inning alive with two-out singles.