The Genesee Community College baseball team has now won 14 of its last 18 region starts and bolted to second place in National Junior College Athletic Association Region-III West Section standings after sweeping visiting Jamestown Community College May 6.
The Cougars built a comfortable 5-1 lead after two innings of the first game before cruising to a 10-7 win after scoring three runs in both the first and sixth innings.
The team's top offensive player was Justin Taveras with a pair of hits, three RBI, and a pair of stolen bases.
Genesee had 14 hits with six players getting a pair apiece. Joining Taveras were Jakob MacLeod, Bryant Fontanez, Andrew Shapiro, Justin Baly, and Shannon Folkes, with the latter scoring a team-high three runs. Junior King and Shurburnie Jonis rounded out the Cougar hitters with Jonis adding a pair of stolen bases.
Tyler Prospero recorded the win at the mound with three strikeouts in allowing two earned runs in six innings of work.
Genesee got all that it needed in the first two innings of the second game with three runs before taking the matinee contest 5-2.
A combination of pitching and extra-base hits decided the contest in the Cougars' favor.
Genesee had six hitters with four of them plating doubles on the day. Shapiro led the way with two of the team's seven hits including a double. Also with doubles were MacLeod, King and Nate Darwin, with Folkes and Baly recording singles.
Colin Noeth had 11 strikeouts in his seven innings on the mound that saw the local product surrender one earned run and seven hits in recording the win.
The pair of wins against the Jayhawks gives Genesee the current second-best region winning percentage at .636, as well as the second-best overall winning percentage at .595 in west section standings of Region-III.
The Cougars will round out the regular season with a pair of home doubleheaders May 8 and May 10 against two of the toughest teams in the region. Genesee hosts Erie first and then concludes the regular season by hosting the division-leader and nationally-ranked Niagara. Both first games are slated for a 2 p.m. start.
