Another beautiful day for baseball at Dunn Field as the first place Elmira Pioneers took on the last place Saugerties Stallions in a non-division matchup.

The Pioneers started their scoring at the bottom of the first as Justin Hayes (Old Dominion) would lead off with a single to the right side and Rob Perteet (Samford) would follow suit with a single of his own moving Hayes to third. After Perteet stole second on Christian Santisteban (Manhattan) would hit a ball to deep center field to get a RBI triple. Josh Lovelady (Missippi State) would than get an RBI groundout to score Santisteban. 

The Stallions would get on the board in the third inning as Nick Russo would lead the charge with a double to deep right center. John Giakis (Farleigh Dickinson) would single in Russo hitting the ball to right field.

The Pioneers would really get to business in the 4th inning, as Santisteban would lead off with a single to center with Lovelady following suit with a single of his own. Tommy Mirabelli (Kansas) would then get an RBI single to score in Santisteban. After Mirabelli stole second, a throwing error by Saugerties catcher Chris Reynolds (Manhattan) would allow Lovelady to score and Mirabelli to get to third base. After Keegan Maronpot (Wake Forest) walked, Sam Clark an RBI single would bring in Mirabelli. Taylor Hillson (Mansfield) and Maronpot would then score on a wild pitch by Phil Zdanowski (Saint Rose). Hillson would later score on an RBI groundout by Will LaRue (Xavier). The score would now be 8-1.

The Pioneer lead would continue to grow in the seventh inning as a two RBI single by Sam Clark and a pair of RBI walks by Tim Delph (Florida State) and Justin Hayes. They would also score four in the eighth inning as an RBI single for Hillson and Perteet and a pair of errors by the Stallions second baseman Joe Venturino (Ramapo) would give the Pioneers some insurance.

The Stallions would have a six run rally in the eighth off of reliever Mike Stephens (Bucknell) as he would give up seven hits. Ryan Bellomo (Siena) would continue the eighth inning and would only give up three runs to the Stallions in the ninth but that was all the Stallions could muster as Bellomo would strikeout three batters to close out the game. 

The final score of the game would be 16-10 Pioneers.

Your Pioneers are back in action Saturday night. Saturday night’s game will be against the Newark Pilots. Be sure to come out for the Multi-Media Services Trading Card giveaway, Hardinge picnic and POSTGAME FIREWORKS sponsored by First Transit. For tickets to Saturday’s game, visit the Pioneers front office at 546 Luce St. or call us at 607-734-2690. For more information, visit theelmirapioneers.com.