ONEONTA _ There were no excuses coming out of the Oneonta Tigers' locker room Tuesday night.
The O-Tigers committed three errors and couldn't get into an offensive flow in losing, 5-3, to the Jamestown Jammers in a New York-Penn League game in front of an announced crowd of 773 at Damaschke Field.
"When you get hit as hard as we did, that will happen," O-Tigers manager Howard Bushong said. "Then on top of that, we had a couple chances and we didn't take advantage of them. You have to play the game the right way and we didn't play it the right way tonight.
"... By now you ought to be close to being on autopilot for basic baseball stuff," he said. "We didn't play good baseball and when you don't play good baseball, you're supposed to get beat. We were poor tonight. We were poor on the mound. We were poor defensively. ... I give them credit. They did a good job of shutting us down."
The O-Tigers (26-18) remained in first place in the Stedler Division, leading Lowell (24-21) by 2 1/2 games. The Spinners beat Hudson Valley, 10-1. Vermont (22-23), which lost, 4-3, to Auburn, remained 4 1/2 games back.
Oneonta continues its three-game set with the Jammers (17-29) at 7:05 tonight and 7:05 p.m. Thursday. The Tigers then host the Staten Island Yankees for a three-game set, beginning at 7:05 p.m. Friday.
"That's all we can play for now is to win the series," Bushong said. "If we do that, it will be a success. But we have to do that. We have to play better and have to play smarter. That's up to the players. At this time of year, it's the players' game. We'll still work on little things, but it's the players' game now. We spent a lot of time teaching. It's time for them to execute come game time. They've been doing it, so we expect them to do it again."
Jamestown, which is last in the six-team Pinckney Division, scored three unearned
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runs with two outs off losing pitcher Jose Siso (0-1) in the fifth inning to snap a 2-all tie.
Chase Austin hit a dribbler to first baseman Rawley Bishop that should have ended the inning, but Siso, who was covering first, couldn't handle an accurate flip from Bishop and dropped the ball, allowing Austin to reach on the error.
Kyle Jensen followed with towering double to the base of the wall in left-center field, scoring Austin to make it 3-2. Ricky Orton then double to left, scoring Jensen for a 4-2 score.
Robert Taylor closed out the scoring with an RBI single to left. Taylor was out on the play when third baseman Wade Gaynor cut off the throw home and threw to second baseman Chris Sedon, who tagged out Taylor.
The Tigers got one back in the sixth. Alexis Espinoza led off with a triple to center. After Luis Palacios lined out to shortstop and Gaynor struck out swinging, Jim Gulliver hit an opposite-field single to left to make it 5-3.
Oneonta had more chances over its final three at-bats. The Tigers left a runner on second in the seventh, stranded men at first and third in the eighth, and at first in the ninth.
"They kept us off-balance pretty well with a lot of off-speed pitching and we were kind of getting ourselves in trouble by swinging at bad pitches," said Bishop, who finished 1-for-3 with an RBI. "... Most teams have been challenging us with fastballs. It seemed like mostly tonight they were mixing up more off-speed pitches, so we're going to have a better understanding of that going into these next two games and have different approaches."
Oneonta's best chance came in the eighth.
Espinoza singled to right and Palacios reached when Jamestown shortstop Chris Wade bobbled a grounder for an error, putting runners on first and second with no outs.
Gaynor followed and Bushong opted to not bunt. Gaynor flied out to right.
"We're trying to get him going. Did (bunting) cross my mind? Yes," Bushong said. "... If you want to question that, you have every right to, there's no doubt. At the time, I was taking my chances."
Gaynor, who was selected by Detroit in the third round of this year's First-Year Player Draft, came into the game hitting .185.
"At some point, Gaynor's going to break out," Bushong said. "I don't know when. Whether it's this year, whether it's next spring, whatever. He's going to break out and be a very good hitter. We keep hoping it's going to be pretty quick now. It will happen. He works too hard and he's too good of a player and too good of an athlete. We were hoping for something to happen there."
Gulliver then grounded to short and Palacios was forced out at second. Jamestown's Stephen Richards got out of the jam by striking out Sedon.
The Jammers opened the scoring in the third, scoring two runs with two outs off Siso.
Jose Ceballos doubled down the third-base line and Erik Kanaby followed with an RBI single to right. Espinoza's throw home was off-line, allowing Kanaby to reach second.
Chase Austin then singled to center, scoring Kanaby. Jamie Johnson's throw home sailed high over catcher John Murrian and to the backstop. Murrian had to track the ball down because Siso didn't back up the play. Austin ended up at third, but Siso got out of the inning when Jensen grounded out to third.
"We shouldn't have thrown to home plate and we overthrow and the pitcher doesn't back up," Bushong said. "Those are little things that at this time of the year are pretty much inexcusable.
Oneonta tied it in the second on RBI singles from Bishop and Murrian.
"I know this, we didn't play well," Bushong said. "And when you don't, it doesn't matter what you do. We didn't play smart. That's what we've been doing. Even in a couple games that we've gotten beat, we didn't make stupid mistakes. We didn't get a run across or something like that. (Tonight) we made stupid mistakes."
NOTES: The Oneonta Tigers will recognize the Oneonta Legion team tonight. The Green Wave, who won their first District Six championship this season, competed at the state tournament where they went 0-2. Coach Mike Jester is scheduled to throw out the first pitch. ... O-Tigers General Manager Andrew Weber said there will be two first pitches tonight _ Colgate hockey coach Don Vaughan will be the second.
Jammers 5, o-Tigers 3
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{"Sports agate MLB batting"/}abrhbiabrhbi
{"Sports agate body text"/}Kanaby cf5111Johnson cf4110
Austin 3b5111Rockett lf4010
Jensen rf4111Bishop 1b3011
Orton 1b3121Murrian c5021
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Wade ss3000Gaynor 3b4000
Paulino dh4010Gulliver ss4011
Torres 2b4010Sedon 2b4110
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Totals36595Totals35393
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{"Sports agate bat stax"/}E"" Wade (6), Torres (9). Johnson (1), Sedon (3). DP""Jamestown 2, Oneonta 1. LOB""Jamestown 6. Oneonta 10. 2B""Ceballos (2), Jensen (7), Orton (6). 3B""Espinoza (4). S""Rockett SB""Torres (3).
{"Sports agate body text"/}JamestownIPHRERBBSO
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Caminero 221130
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{"Sports agate MLB pitching"/}Oneonta
{"Sports agate body text"/}Siso L,0-1585201
Hess310002
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WP""Caminero. HBP""Palacios, Bishop, Orton. Umpires""Home, Brian Debraywere; Field, Jose Rivera. T""2:23. A""773.
___
P.J. Harmer can be reached at pharmer@thedailystar.com or 607-432-1000, ext. 229.
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