Avoca ousted by No. 5 seed
BY JUSTIN PFEIFFER THE TRIBUNE

HORNELL - There will be no repeat for the Avoca baseball team - sectional or state. The top-seeded Tigers fell to No. 4 Genesee Valley by a score of 4-2 on Tuesday, May 29, in a Section V, Class DD semifinal at Maple City Park.

"Three years in a row we lost in the semifinal, two to them," Genesee Valley head coach Paul Furlong said. "We beat them the year before that, so it's kind of getting to be a little bit of a rivalry, even though we don't see each other that often.

"They're a great team and to knock them off in the semifinals, it's just emotional," he added. "I looked at the third baseman in the third inning and I told him, 'This should be the state championship game tonight.' The crowd on both sides were going crazy. The kids were intense the whole game long."

Nate Broughton led the Jaguars to the victory with a complete game. He had nine strikeouts, allowed four hits and gave up two runs. Broughton didn't allow a hit until Freddy Klock's one-out single in the fourth.

"He was around the plate all night, he caught us looking on the corner a few times and he was hitting the spots pretty well," Avoca head coach Aaron Mullen said. "They made some great plays on a few bunts. They just came here and beat us."

The Jaguars posted the first run of the game in the third. Logan Heaney reached base on a fielder's choice, stole second and third and crossed home on a single by Geoff Bliven.

Genesee Valley tacked on three runs to its lead in the fifth. The Jaguars loaded the bases with one out in the frame, and Shane Nelson brought in Nate Broughton and Geoff Bliven with a single to left-center. Austin Kelley scored later in the inning on a passed ball.

The Tigers cut the Jaguars' lead in half in the fifth. Dave Hogan had an in field bunt single and Brian Kidder reached base on a fielder's choice. Both runners scored on a single by Joe Wallace, making the score 4-2.

But Broughton allowed no runs and just one hit in the last two innings.

"Nate threw incredible, he was just hungry tonight," Furlong said. "We got a couple key hits when we needed them."

After winning the Class DD state title last season, the Tigers went 15-5 this season and were the No. 1 team in the state for a large portion of the season.

"What's going through my mind now is the things I probably could have done differently tonight," Mullen said. "I'm just real proud of the way these guys came out here, and they didn't give up not even when we had two outs (in the seventh)."