Rochester Defeats Avondale 4-0 at Oakland University

A scattered crowd on the hillside overlooking ’s diamond watched the shut out the Avondale Yellow Jackets 4-0 in their season opener.

The MVP: The Falcons defense allowed zero runs and made key outs to get their pitchers out of jams.

Avondale struggled to keep up with Rochester's Nick Bradley, who was placing his fastballs on the corners of the plate to strike out the Avondale batters. 

The Turning Point: Rochester scored three runs in the first inning when the Yellow Jackets made two errors, walked three batters and only allowed one hit.

Nick Bradley led the Falcons' stellar defense, pitching five shutout innings.

Chris Saber closed the game for the Falcons and struck out a few batters with a his curve ball.

“Chris (Saber) would be a lot of teams' No. 1 pitcher with the stuff he throws,” Rochester head coach Eric Magiera said.

The Quote: “We practice the first-and-third situation all the time. It’s great to see it work during the game,” Magiera said.

Magiera was referring to a situation in the sixth inning where the runner on first was in a pickle, and at the opportune moment when the first baseman made the tag, the runner on third easily stole home to give Rochester a 4-0 lead.

“You want to make sure the first baseman is running away from home plate so it makes it difficult for him to stop and make a throw,” Magiera said.

Around The Horn: The umpire had a liberal strike zone, but he called it both ways. 

Batters from both teams were often seen mumbling on their way back to the dugout after watching the third strike fly by them.

What’s next? Rochester (3-3) hosts Troy on Friday at 4:30 p.m.

Avondale plays at Oxford at 4:30 p.m. Friday.