The Wallkill baseball team was riding high.

The Panthers had won seven straight until they ran into Valley Central’s Cam Stevens on Thursday afternoon at Wallkill High School.

Stevens kept the Wallkill bats quiet for most of six innings, took advantage of some Panther misplays in the field and tagged out the tying run between third base and home plate in the bottom of the seventh to escape with a 5-4 victory.

Stevens had been out most of the season with an arm injury and gave the Vikings some length when they needed it going 6+ innings for the win.

“I love being back,” Stevens said. “It was fantastic to be back. That’s a real good team. But we did really good offensively and defensively.”

It didn’t help that the Vikings entered the non-league contest out of pitchers, having already played three games this week, losing to Beacon and Newburgh Free Academy on May 9 and 10, before rebounding to beat Middletown, 4-1, on Wednesday.

Thursday’s game was the Vikings last game of the week, giving them an opportunity to rest their pitching staff before they were scheduled to take the field against the Monroe-Woodbury Crusaders on Monday.

Stevens and William Treco, who threw the seventh inning for the save, were the only pitchers the Vikings had left.

“Cam was pretty much at his pitch limit and that’s why he came out,” Valley Central coach Robert Leonard said. “We were out of pitchers for the week. Treco was it and he got the job done.”

Stevens had a rough start, walking Bryce DeGroat to start the game and a single by Kyle DeGroat put runners on first and second with nobody out.

However, Bryce DeGroat was hit by a ball by James Lee that may have been ticketed for left field for a hit. He was out and runners remained on first and second.
“Bryce gets hit with that ball and that would have been 1-0 and we still would have had first and second with no outs,” Wallkill coach T.D. Mills said. “So that changed the inning a little bit. But that’s not why we lost the game. We lost the game because we didn’t make plays in the field defensively and a lot of bad plate approaches.”

The Panthers got their 1-0 lead when Hermance singled home Kyle DeGroat, but Brandon Vesely bounced back to Stevens to end the first.

After Stevens walked Spencer Freer to start the second inning, Freer set down the next 10 Wallkill batters before Jacob Quiles singled with one out in the fifth inning.
“He just got ahead in the count and then he was able to mix up his pitches a little and he hit his spots and he’s always composed,” Leonard said. “He doesn’t get rattled easy.”

Stevens helped himself by hitting a run scoring single off Wallkill’s Bryce DeGroat, who left the game after two innings due to some back discomfort. James Lee relieved him, pitching a perfect third inning before running into trouble in the fourth.

The Vikings loaded the bases on a single, an error and a bunt base hit over the mound, and took the lead when third baseman Christian Shorey, who replaced DeGroat in the lineup, threw wide to home plate on Treco’s ground ball.

Stevens walked with the bases loaded to send home William Quinn and Treco scored on a wild pitch.

That gave Stevens some room to maneuver.

“That gave me a lot of confidence on the mound,” Stevens said. “I was more relaxed and able to mix up the ball speeds, focus better. I was more relaxed, overall.”

The Vikings tacked on another run in the seventh inning when Sebastian Lockwood singled and scored on an error.

“That’s baseball,” Mills said. “You don’t make the plays and teams are going to take advantage of it regardless of their record. You’ve got to make the plays, or it comes back and bites you in the butt.”

In the bottom of the seventh, it was the Vikings not making the plays, as the Panthers mounted a comeback. Jacob Maraday, Quiles and Shorey singled to start the inning. Maraday and Quiles came around to score on an error by Valley Central shortstop Keldrin Rodriguez.

Kyle DeGroat came around to score on a fielder’s choice to pull the Panthers within one. However, after Hermance reached on an error, Jack Rauschenbach got hung up between third and home plate and was tagged out by Valley Central catcher Colin Quinn to end the game.

The Panthers finished the week on Saturday, finishing a suspended road game against Red Hook. The Panthers were leading 9-1 in the bottom of the second and beat the Red Raiders, 17-1 in five innings.

They edged New Paltz, 2-1, on May 9 and routed Saugerties, 13-0 on May 10 to win the Mid-Hudson Athletic league Division I championship and a spot in Tuesday’s MHAL tournament.