With a steady flow of rain and an all around damp and cold day on the shores of the Big Lake, the Warriors and Buckhorns took to the field to face off once again in Lackawanna League Division One Baseball Action.

The Bucks (9-2), who are currently in a two way race with West Scranton (9-2) needed the win to stay on top of the division, the Warriors wanted the win to stay above the 500 mark. In what turned out to be a marathon game, nearly three hours in length, The Bucks held onto an early lead, and fought off the relentless Warrior attack that saw it all come down to the top of the seventh inning, with runners in scoring position and Nick DeFebo on the mound.

“I have so much confidence in our closer Nick DeFebo and he’s one of the best in the league right now. He’s a hard thrower and has a nasty curve ball, he does his job when he needs to come in and I have confidence in him that he’ll get the close and I’ll get the win.”

Tim Silsby took the mound to start the game and made quick work of the Warrior’s offense sitting them down in order, three up, three down.

The Bucks jumped out to a lead in the first inning when they erupted for three runs that started with sophomore leadoff man Joe DeFebo ripping a double to center field and then taking third on a wild pitch. The next batter up, another DeFebo — this time it was Nick — walked. Nick DeFebo would wind up being a key to the Bucks victory later in the game, but for now he was on first base. Corey Linden, the team’s leading slugger, reached on a walk as well and the bases were jammed full of Purple jerseys. Chris Ortiz stepped up to the plate, took a couple of practice swings and knocked a base hit single that scored both the DeFebo brothers and it was two nothing. The bats were working early for the hometeam and Kevin Hendrickson kept the slugfest alive by blasting a sacrifice fly to bring Linden back to the dry confines of the dugout. At the end of the first, it was three nothing and what the umbrella clad Buckhorn Pride in attendance on the sidelines wanted to see.

The second inning was almost a repeat of the first. Silsby on the mound and no runs scored for the Warriors while the Bucks racked up three more. Corey Capone started the attack when he took a curve ball in the back for the free trip to first. Pat Camuso belted a double down the right field line, scoring Capone and then Nick DeFebo singled to bring in Camuso. Ortiz did a rerun of his first plate appearance and recorded another single, and another RBI, scoring DeFebo. At the end of two it was 6-0 nothing Bucks, but the game was nowhere near over.

“We hit in the first two innings then we stopped hitting, but we did it defensively. DV is a tough team, they’re always a battle every time we go there or they come here,” said Linden.

‘Paupack collected one more run in the bottom of the third to pad their lead to seven, and it would be the eventual game winner. Joe DeFebo hit a hard shot that was mishandled by the Warrior third baseman, J.D. Donson, that scored Nick Halas who was the speed up runner for Ryan Loughran, who previously reached on a walk. That was the last run the Bucks got in the game and it would prove to be enough, but not before the Warriors went on an offensive explosion.

In the top half of the fourth Mike Pena walked to lead off the inning. Mike Accardi singled and Kyle Shearer walked to fill up the bases for DV. Ed Balcarcel walked next and the Warriors had their first, but not last run off the inning. They racked up two more when Accardi touched home and Shearer was driven in on a Donson RBI single, and the flood gates were open. The Buck’s Capone made a nice grab on another hard hit ball to end the onslaught from the visiting team.

“I felt like I hit my spots pretty well and I got to the fourth inning where I started missing some pitches, my legs were getting a little tired but other than that I thought I was throwing hard still and still had my off speed stuff working pretty well,” said Silsby.

With the lead that was once seven paired down to four and at the end of five it would be a one run game. In the fifth, the Warriors batted through the lineup with all nine players getting a whack at the plate. Joe McNeeley, Pena and Balcarcel all scored and the Bucks were sitting back in frustration, wondering what was going on.

Through the sixth neither team scored, in the seventh things got tense. The Bucks had already gone through a slew of pitchers in the contest with Cody McCuen, Ian Dassance, Silsby and Nick DeFebo all taking turns on the mound, and Head Coach Bob McGinnis went back to DeFebo who was successful in the sixth, striking out the side and keeping the lead alive.

As mentioned earlier, Nick DeFebo would play the role of hero for the Bucks. He confidently came to the mound from Center Field and threw some nice, hard, diving pitches across the plate but not before the drama that comes with pitching.

Every pitcher dreams of coming into the game, bottom of the ninth, bases loaded, two outs, stadium full of cheering fans, and that is almost what Nick DeFebo got. The only difference was it was the top of the seventh and the stadium was a sideline full of the Buckhorn Pride.

DeFebo touched the brim of his hat, shook off the first sign from his catcher Ortiz and fired a bullet down the middle, strike one. Second pitch was much of the same, this time the batter swung and missed, strike two. One pitch to go and DeFebo threw a heater that left the batter guessing and he missed, strike three, the Buckhorns win 7-6.

“We had the momentum in our favor and it just shifted to Delaware Valley, they’re a good hitting team and they can beat anybody. They’re a very hard team and they hit the ball hard and it just ended up they didn’t have enough innings to play. You give them another inning or two and they’re right in this ballgame and maybe even win it. We started out as a good hard-hitting team and just mellowed out towards the end, we have to score more runs if we want to win,” added Nick DeFebo.

On Saturday the Bucks hosted Abington Heights and beat them 3-0. Joe DeFebo went 3-3 including a double with one RBI and one run scored. Linden and DeSane both had one hit a piece.

Ryan Loughran pitched five innings and didn’t allow a run while striking out three. Dassance pitched 2/3 of an inning and whiffed two. Nick DeFebo picked up his third save of the season and struck out two in 1 1/3 innings.