The crowd and both teams are silent as the pitcher winds up and in a split second ... ping! Ithaca College sophomore Rob Zappia ropes one to the opposite field. Junior T.J. Abone scores from third as sophomore Matt Streich rounds third and heads for home. He dives headfirst, and the baseball team leaps out of the dugout as he makes it just under the tag of the catcher — this has become a familiar scene for the Bombers throughout the year.

While the Blue and Gold’s offense has been powerful all season long, it stood out in their four-game set against St. John Fisher College as their 36 hits propelled them to three wins and a ninth-straight Empire 8 title.

Senior infielder Kurt Bednarcyk said the South Hill squad has had the ability to hit well all year, but it finally came around this weekend.

“Sometimes we get nervous, and we don’t hit the pitching that we should,” he said. “A lot of times we don’t hit weak pitching well. This week we came out and decided we were done with that and just decided to hit like we could.”

Assistant Coach Frank Fazio said it’s the combination of the athletes’ physical and mental abilities that has gotten them in an offensive groove.

“The kids are getting accustomed to doing the right things, and the routine is becoming easier for them to follow,” he said.

Fazio said at this point, the players are confident enough in their abilities that they do not have to think about hitting, they just do it.

While the team has piled on runs in some of its games, the Blue and Gold have also played small ball in order to get runs across.

Fazio said the players are an unselfish, team-oriented group so they have started to get a better grasp of doing the little things in order to win.

“They understand that there’s a job to do, and it’s to win ball games and to score runs the best way we can,” Fazio said. “If you have to sacrifice, so be it. If you have to drive the ball to the right side, so be it.”

In the first game of the weekend series against St. John Fisher, the Blue and Gold used their small-ball skills to their advantage.

Sophomore third baseman David Ahonen executed a sacrifice fly to score a run, and Abone dropped down a sacrifice bunt to move runners into scoring position to eventually take a 5–3 win.

Unlike many offensively savvy teams, the South Hill squad is not only strong at the top of its lineup, but at the bottom as well.

“Sometimes when you have a weak link in the lineup, it’s like every time they come up you’re like, ‘Oh no, it’s going to be an out,’” Bednarcyk said. “We don’t feel that way about anybody. We just feel like anybody has the ability to get on base and score runs.”

Ahonen said it is that strength up and down the lineup, from the one hitter to the nine hitter, that makes this team so tough to beat.

“It’s not like the one or two studs of the team are doing it,” Ahonen said. “Different guys step up every day, and that’s what great teams do.”

Though the South Hill squad seems to be running on all cylinders, Fazio said the players still have to continue working hard like they have all season long.

“Sometimes when you get too comfortable, you get lazy, and you start making mistakes,” Fazio said. “And then when you start having a bad repetition of a bad swing, then you suffer. These kids right now understand that they have to work hard, and they’ve been working very hard at it.”