Niagara's was an all-star effort
By Doug Smith
NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. — Weathering a few operational eclipses, Niagara Falls enjoyed its day in the sun as all-star host Wednesday. New York State Collegiate League President Stan Lehman told Niagara Power CEO Cal Kern that Kern’s operation took the league’s all-star game “to a new level, establishing a new standard.”
Well over 500 fans attended, many of them from far away, boosting the local economy, significantly the Como Restaurant where they significantly reduced the pasta surplus. Most stayed to chew the fat long after the last pitch.
The East won 4-3 in a game scripted for local heroes. North Tonawandan Jesse Puscheck delivered the game-winning hit, a seventh-inning single, after scoring the team’s second run, in the sixth. Puscheck’s line for the night: 1-1-1-1, on base three times.
Power ‘stars did well. Adam Taylor went 2-2, the only player with more than one hit. Outfielder Shakeel Newton made a fine running catch and drove a counterpart to the wall in his only at-bat. Chane Lynch fielded flawlessly at first, Steve Beckham was in line for the mound “W” before the East caught up and Scott Voyles and Frank Grandinette each posted a perfect pitching line – a third of an inning each.
Six different arms twirled for the West in the fourth and fifth. East pitchers had a limit so strict that five were lifted, usually trouble-free, in mid-inning. The West used 13 pitchers, the East 11 – and every East hurler struck out at least one batter, a total of 17 in all. West pitchers whiffed 12. Read more...
