HOUGHTON, NY— The Houghton Highlanders won both ends of a doubleheader with the Elmira Soaring Eagles on Friday, first with a heroic walk-off with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, 6-5, then escaping a disastrous meltdown in the nightcaps, hanging on to win, 9-8.
GAME VITALS
Game 1 Score: Elmira – 5 | Houghton – 6
Game 2 Score: Elmira – 8 | Houghton – 9
Records: Elmira: 11-18 (3-13 Empire 8) | Houghton: 14-16 (5-11 Empire 8)
Venue: Kerr-Pegula Athletic Complex, Houghton, NY | Attendance: 150
Game One:
Nate "The Walk-Off King" Hall laced a two-out base hit base hit to left to score
Vincent Lucyszyn from second base, as the Highlanders picked up their 13
th win of the season.
In the top of the ninth, with Houghton holding a 5-4 lead,
Lukas Cornell was cruising, having retired eight of the first nine batters he faced—allowing only one walk. But after striking out the first two batters of the inning, Sean Deaner deposited a 2-0 Cornell pitch over the right field fence, tying the game, 5-5.
Lucyszyn walked to lead off the ninth, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by
Qingyang Feng, which prompted the Soaring Eagles to intentionally walk
Christian Tortorici. After a flyout gave Elmira two outs, Hall laced a 0-1 pitch for the game-winner.
Cornell gave up the lone hit in three innings of work, striking out three, while
He Zhang also pitched 3.1 innings of relief, allowing only one unearned run on three hits, striking out four.
Hall now has three walk-off base hits in his career.
Game Two:
With the Highlanders leading, 9-3, the Soaring Eagles scored five runs, and had runners on the corners, when
Isaiah Wood finally slammed the door closed with a strikeout to end the game.
Christopher Gross allowed only one earned run over six innings of work, allowing six hits and only one walk, while striking out seven.
The Highlanders plated five in the first, thanks to a two-run homerun off the bat of Feng, and a two-RBI single from
Tobias Waldridge.
Feng would strike again in the fourth, hitting his second home run of the day to right-center.
After Elmira plated three in the fifth, Houghton answered with two more off the bat of Waldridge in the sixth.
Nate Tyler would toss two scoreless innings without allowing a hit, striking out two.
KEY STATS:
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Christian Tortorici extended his hitting streak to 15 games, going 2-for-4 in game one, then 4-for-5 with a pair of doubles in game two. He is now hitting .430 on the season. Tortorici has 13 multi-hit games this season, and has collected four hits in a game on three separate occasions. He also swiped four bases, two in each game, and threw out his 16
th would-be basestealer, breaking Chris VanCheri's 2023 single-season record.
>> Feng went 2-for-3 and 2-for-6 on the day. He now has six homeruns on the season, second-most in a season behind only Wayne Rode (7, 2021). Feng now has nine homeruns for his career, one shy of Rode's career benchmark.
>>
James Nelson was hit by a pitch four times on the day, taking his season total to 19, which ties him with Michael Kerr (2015) for the most times hit by a pitch in a single season.
UP NEXT:
With inclement weather in the forecast for tomorrow, the Highlanders and Soaring Eagles will play the third and final game of their series on Monday at 6:00 p.m. at the Kerr-Pegula Athletic Complex.
