A Pioneers victory Saturday night coupled with a Hornell loss meant a shake-up atop the leader board in the Western Division as Elmira moved a half game ahead of the Dodgers. Chad Simendinger started on the mound a night after seeing his start against the Alfred Thunder get washed away by Mother Nature.

Simendinger brought a 1-1 record into the game, which also happened to be the last game in the first half of the NYCBL season. Simendinger working off of a six hit shutout in his last start against Geneva at home had his stuff working early on keeping the Red Wings off the scoreboard.

Geneva however would break through first in the home half
of the fourth scoring two runs on back-to-back RBI doubles. With Geneva still looking for more Simendinger got two key groundouts to end the inning and hold the lead at 2-0.

The Pioneers were unable to put anything together early against starter Eric Schwieger until the seventh inning when Carlos Lopez and Brian Erie were able to reach base allowing Jake Rickenbach to drive a ball into the gap scoring Lopez and Erie. With Schwieger exiting the game tied 2-2 and the bases loaded, Elmira looked to take the lead off of the Geneva bullpen. Elmira would leave the bases loaded as John Snyder struck out to end the inning.

After allowing Geneva to retake the lead the bottom half of the inning, Elmira rallied once more as they would take a 6-4 lead by scoring four runs in the eighth inning. Corey Keller, Brian Erie and Joey Jacobson all had RBI hits in the inning as the Pioneers were able to strike against the Red Wings bullpen. Simendinger picked up his second victory of the season and John Colella picked up his sixth save of the season for Elmira.

Jake Rickenbach, Carlos Lopez and Brian Erie finished the game with multi-hit nights and eight Pioneers in all had at least one hit on the night. The win moves Elmira to 15-10 on the season and they will return to Dunn Field to begin a five game home stand starting Wednesday July 14th. Thursday July 15th is Thirsty Thursday, all drinks are $1. Fantastic Friday, July 16th, there will be a fireworks display presented by the City of Elmira.

For ticket information or team news visit the Pioneers on the web at www.elmirapioneers.com or call 607-734-2690.

This Summer Have Some Fun at Dunn!