Crush take division lead, sweep of Sherrill

(Scott Thomas/Cortland Crush).

The Cortland Crush have now won seven games in a row.

The Crush traveled to Sherrill on Friday to battle the Silversmiths and left with a pair of wins in the doubleheader.

Cortland took game one 11-1 and game two 11-3. The Crush combined to hit six home runs in the two victories.

"Everything is working for us," said Garrett Callaghan. "we have one more game before the all-star break, hopefully we can go into the all-star break with a lead as well, but it's a really good feeling."

With the wins, the Crush take over first place in the NYCBL Eastern division, improving to 17-9-1 on the year and two points ahead of the Syracuse Salt Cats.

Game one:

The Crush turned in arguably their most complete performance of the season in game one at Sherrill.

Cortland used three home runs, two by Sean O'Malley and one from Hayden Houts, and a brilliant performance on the mound from Mike Viveiros to take game one.

"The whole day I was seeing the ball well, Sherrill has a pretty short porch out in right (field) so I really just wanted to elevate the ball, hopefully it would pop one out and I got three today," O'Malley said.

Viveiros kept the Silversmiths hitters off balance all game long, allowing only one run in the seventh inning and four hits. He also struck out seven and walked only one batter.

"I just go out there with the same mentality as a nine-inning game," said Viveiros. "Everything was working, fastball wad good, fastball location, curveball was alright but after the third inning I found a good feel for it."

The offense brought the power to back up Viveiros.

Cortland jumped out to a 1-0 in the top of the third when Anthony Cieszko hit a sacrifice-fly to right field that scored Dylan Nolan.

Houts then went yard for the Crush, clobbering a three-run-home run to right field to make it 4-0. It was Houts' first home run of the season.

O'Malley added a run in the top of the fifth, mashing a solo-home run to right field to expand the lead to 5-0.

An inning later, O'Malley was at it again. With runners on first and second, the Crush first baseman unloaded on a pitch from Sherrill relief pitcher Rylan Baker for a three-run home run.

O'Malley finished the game going 3-5 with two home runs and four RBI's.

Callaghan added three more runs in the top of the seventh, smacking a double to make it 11-0.

The Silversmiths scored their lone run with two-outs in the bottom of the seventh, making it 11-1.

The Crush recorded 11 base hits and got multi-hit games from O'Malley, Callaghan and Alex Flock.

"It's amazing," Viveiros said of the run support. "I can go out there and give up one run or two, it allows me to calm down knowing we're up by seven or eight runs."

Game two:

Head coach Bill McConnell decided to use the bullpen for game two to allow more rest time for the starters.

Noah Nabhotz made his first start as a Crush and allowed two runs in two innings. Jacob Simon pitched the third and allowed only a run to keep the game close.

"It felt good to get out there and show all of my improvement this summer," Nabhotz said. "I was thrilled, I've been working all summer and to find out hard work pays off and get the start, it felt good."

"I was really just trying to command my fastball, and then working off that with the slider," Simon said. "my fastball command I was pretty pleased with today."

The bats woke up for the Crush in the top of the fourth.

The Crush exploded for seven runs in the frame to snatch the lead from the Silversmiths and didn't look back.

O'Malley picked up where he left off in game one, hitting his third home run of the day in the top of the fourth to make it 3-1 Sherrill. He finished the day 5-9 at the plate, hitting three home runs and driving in five runs.

"It (the home run in the second game) maybe lit a little fire under us," O'Malley said. "the cards kind of fell into the deck after that."

After Andrew Gough drove in another run with an RBI-single, Jack Lynch hit his second home run of the season, a three-run blast that made it 5-3 Crush.

Flock followed that up with a two-run homer of his own, his fourth of the season, to give Cortland a 7-3 lead.

The Crush dropped three more runs on the Silversmiths in the sixth when Stephen Bennett hit his second home run of the season, smashing a three-run shot to make it 10-3.

Callaghan's RBI-double in the seventh ended the scoring and made it 7-3. Callaghan hit lead off for the Crush in game two and went 3-4 with an RBI and a walk.

"That's where I hit every game at Ithaca, so I enjoy leading off," Callaghan said. "I was getting fastballs 1-0 (count), 2-0, it's much easier for me to hit fastballs than off speed pitches."

Dominik Spinoso finished the game on the mound for the Crush, pitching a scoreless final four innings and allowing only one hit.

Cortland again finished with 11 base hits.