SECTION 4 BASEBALL: GAME PLAN PLAYS OUT TO PERFECTION AS HORSEHEADS MAKES HISTORY WITH 4TH STRAIGHT SECTIONAL TITLE (24 PHOTOS) (2025-06-02)
By Brian FeesSouthern Tier Sports ReportWAVERLY — As Keegan Monahan danced off third base, you could feel the buzz among the Horseheads fans.
It was the bottom of the fifth inning, Horseheads and Vestal tied at two in the third and deciding game of their Class AA Championship series, but it had a bottom of the seventh inning feel as one of the best pitchers in New York State was loosening up in the grass behind the Horseheads dugout.
Monahan crossed home plate on a sacrifice fly by Cooper Ball and Mason Holloway, and his 92 strikeouts to no walks this year, walked to the mound closing out the game as Horseheads topped the Golden Bears 4-2 to win their fourth straight sectional title, the first time that’s happened in program history.
“It’s really special, being with the group we’ve been with,” Holloway said. “It’s been up through Little League with these guys. Being able to win four for the first time in program history is very special, especially to be able to do it with this group of guys.”
The plan was Ball for five innings, and Holloway for two. But, Limoncelli knows that best laid plans only work when the kids execute all game long.
“Only two innings max (for Holloway),” Limoncelli said. “If we were not in that situation he was not going to pitch at all. If he was in a situation to close I thought he could go two innings. If we had kind of stubbed our toe there (in the seventh) he would have come out of the game and not gone a third inning, just because of health reasons, I don’t want to do that to him. But, I knew he could give me two, and he always has a low pitch count. Typical him, it doesn’t bother him, he just goes in there and gets the job done.
“It’s funny, it doesn’t always work out. You script it in our coaches meeting, five for Ball, two for Mason, done deal. It doesn’t always go that way. They have bases loaded, I thought we were in trouble when we had the bases loaded, no outs and don’t score. But, then they have the bases loaded and that big double play gives us that life. If Ben (Tanton_ hits an RBI, whatever, double, triple, three runs, you never see Mason and it is what it is. Credit to everyone before Mason got in the game for doing what we needed to do, staying afloat. It was a good win for us.”
The win capped a back-and-forth series between two strong teams. Horseheads won the series 2-1, after Vestal topped Horseheads in the STAC title game. Horseheads won the regular season matchup between the teams.
“The two best teams are playing each other, they (Vestal) are outstanding, and well coached, and we have players too. It was going to be three games, but we were excited about it. It’s good baseball and we were able to come out on top.
“We played five times, we won three out of the five. That’s the way it should be. The series we play now, I love it because one game is a crap shoot. It took three games because they are very good.”
The series was a bit of a chess match between the two teams. Holloway went out and won game one. Vestal saved their ace, Ben Tanton, not pitching him game one and instead saving him for game two, which Vestal one. Horseheads choose to save Ball for game three, and he got the win on the mound Monday.
“It was a big chess match,” Holloway said. “Tanton is an unbelievable pitcher, going to Old Dominion, so you know he’s good to be able to play Division I baseball. He’s a great kid too, person wise. Holding him to get to a game three was really smart by their coaches, who again, are unbelievable .”
For Horseheads coach Jeff Limoncelli when he saw Tanton not pitch game one, he knew they had to take the first game, and then came the idea to push Ball to the third game.
That’s what is fun about this series,” Limoncelli said. “We knew once they didn’t throw Ben in game one we wanted to get a win with Mason and then we in the coaches office said let’s back door this a little bit. We should have won yesterday, we killed ourselves yesterday. Brendan Clark was outstanding, but coming in here with Cooper and Mason I thought we had a really good chance.
“The kids were very disappointed yesterday. We let one slip away and they were fired up, ready to go and they did everything they possibly could to get it done, and I”m proud of them.”
Ball was honored to have a chance to pitch game three
“I took it as a compliment saying he has confidence in me for game three,” Ball said. “It was good (the series). We prepared for Ben for most of it. Even though they threw the lefty the first game, we were prepared for everything. The first game it was 0-0, I threw Ben out at home, I think that started the momentum and we scored five the next inning.”
Vestal struck first as Tanton hit a two-out triple and scored on a single by Henry Lay to go up 1-0.
Horseheads answered back in the bottom of the first as Holloway drew a two-out walk, stole second and scored on an error off the bat of Ball.
Vestal retook the lead in the second as Josh Kweller tripled and scored on a groundout.
Horseheads again came back in the bottom half of the inning as Micah Hays, Devin Sullivan and Patrick Laney hit one-out singles to load the bases and Josh Stout hit a sacrifice fly to tie the game.
After both teams were set down 1-2-3 in the third, and Horseheads went 1-2-3 in the fourth, the Blue Raiders had a big scoring chance in the bottom of the fourth.
Lyncoln Bennett was hit by a pitch, Hays singled and Sullivan singled to load the bases with no outs.
After a fielder’s choice left the runner out at home on a ground ball, Vestal turned a double play to get out of the inning.
Vestal had a big scoring chance in the top of the fifth as they got two walks, and a single with one out to load the bases. That brought Tanton, with a .522 batting average and nearly .700 on-base percentage, to the plate. Horseheads came up big on defense, turning a double play to end the threat.
“That was the biggest thing of my life,” Ball said of his defense behind him. “The best define I think I’ve ever had.”
As soon as the ball was hit Ball knew it was a double play.
“I knew it was,” he said. “I have so much confidence with the middle infield with Josh Stout and Keegan Monahan.”
In the bottom of the fifth the Blue Raiders took the lead as Monahan singled and moved to second on a passed ball. After an out was recorded, Monahan took third on an error and scored on the Ball sacrifice fly.
That led to Holloway coming into the game. Holloway has two perfect games this year, and also another shared one. He’s one solo perfect game short of the national record for a season. He’s allowed just one earned run all season.
There is always an opportunity to help your team and to get the nod to be able to come in and close this game, it’s always special to have the trust from them to do it,” Holloway said.
Holloway went to a 3-2 count with the first batter in the sixth, one of the few times he’s gone to a three-ball count all season long. He then struck out the batter, showing some emotion after that strikeout.
“It was big, getting the first one is always big,” Holloway said. “There was a lot of emotion in that, there was a lot of adrenaline. After I got that I settled down and we were off to the races.”
Holloway then struck out the side in that sixth inning.
In the bottom of the sixth the Blue Raiders tacked on an insurance run as Patrick Laney tripled with one out and scored on a sacrifice fly by Stout
“In the dugout I was saying get me one run,” Holloway said. “Josh Stout did what he does and Patrick Laney hit a big triple.”
After Holloway got two quick outs in the seventh, Vestal got back-to-back singles, but Holloway came back, and got a groundout to end the game.
“Throw strikes,” Holloway said of his mindset with the runners on. “The guys behind me have been making plays all year. So, there wasn’t a worry in my mind with them behind me.”
Ball went five innings, striking out two and allowing five hits and the two runs. He knew he could go all out in the game with Holloway behind him to close the game.
“I knew if I got through most of the game Mason was going to shut it down no matter what,” Ball said. “I knew I could give it my everything. I appreciate the whole team.”
For Horseheads it was a bunch of small ball that led to runs. They had nine hits, but the only extra base hit was the Laney triple.
“I knew when there were people in scoring situations I just had to be situational and do what I needed to do,” Ball said. “Not try to get too big. Don’t try to do too much. Just do my job.”
For Limoncelli this game is a very special in his final season as coach of the Blue Raiders.
“Honesty, I would be lying if I said it wasn’t special,” Limoncelli said. “I really wanted to do it, but if not I was at peace with it. It’s been fun, my career here with these guys. But, it’s special. Last year, get a little state run, hopefully go further.”
It’s special for the Horseheads players to make history with the sectional title.
“It feels great,” Ball said. “It feels great to be back-to-back as a sophomore. I wouldn’t want to do it with any other team.”
The whole series was made more interesting by the crazy weather. Game one was postponed multiple times, The original schedule had game one Wednesday, and the series ending on Saturday. Instead game one got postponed two different times, before it was played on Friday. Game two was postponed from Saturday to Sunday, moving game three all the way to Monday.
“It was crazy, but I think it hurt them more, because we got to practice more and get better,” Ball said of all the delays.
The whole spring has been rough weather wise, but the Blue Raiders made it work.
“It’s been the worst spring I’ve ever seen,” Limoncelli said. “It’s been tough on kids. The weather has been cruddy, but we just had to keep things interested and do different things in practice we don’t usually do. Keep them competitive and obviously it worked.”
Hays, Sullivan and Laney had two hits each for Horseheads. Bennett, Trevor Reidy and Monahan also had hits. Holloway struck out four in two innings allowing the two hits and no runs.
Vestal had seven hits, the two extra base hits were the Tanton and Kweller triples.
Horseheads is now onto the regional final where they face Walkill at 2 p.m. Saturday at Maine-Endwell. Walkill topped Horseheads 3-1 in last year’s regional game.
“We are really excited,” Holloway said. “The squad we have this year, the pitching staff, we are ready to go. We lost to them two times before, so there is a big chip on our shoulder to beat these guys. It’s going to be a tough game, but we’ll see what happens.”
The Horseheads players are easy for Saturday.
“They are fired up, ready to go,” Limoncelli said. “We will give them tomorrow off, and then we’ll practice Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and then we’ll go to Maine-Endwell with one thing on our mind, to go to the Final Four.”
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PHOTOS BY BRIAN FEES
PHOTO GALLERY FROM THE GAME:
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