Coleman leads HVCC Baseball to the Regional Final Four for the first time since 2011

TROY — For the first time in 6 years, the Hudson Valley Community College Vikings are one of the last four teams standing, after a 8-5 win over Onondaga Community College in the Sub-regional Round of the NJCAA Region III Tournament.

The Vikings, coming into the playoffs as the #2 seed in the East Region, were trying to get to a place they have never been to under their relatively new head coach Alex Jurczynski: The Final Four. First, the Vikings had to get past a tough Onondaga Lazers team, who entered the postseason as the #3 seed in the West division. Revenge was on the Vikings mind, as the Lazers put an end to the Vikings postseason hopes last year, defeating Hudson Valley in the sub-regional round.

In Game 1 on Sunday at Shuttleworth Park, the Vikings jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the first inning, and the Lazers tied the game in the top end of the third. But that was all the Lazers would get, as the Vikings defeated the Lazers by a score of 5-2 (FINAL), thanks in part to the dominant performance of Danny Yankowski. Yankowski, who played his high school ball at Ichabod Crane High School, went the full nine innings, allowing on 2 runs on 2 walks while striking out six in his first complete game of the season. While it may have been his first career postseason start, Yankowski’s preparation was the same that it was all season long.

“I wasn’t nervous at all.  Our coaches did a good job preparing us for the game and made sure we were focused on the task at hand,” Yankowki said on his Game 1 preparation. “I have the same approach whether it is a playoff game or not.  I have the mindset that when I’m on the mound, I can get any batter out.  I focus on executing my pitches and I have a lot of confidence in my defense.”

Six strikeouts with only two walks in a complete game victory is a statline that is only seen once in a blue moon at the college level, yet with Yankowski, that type of performance is something that has been there all season long.

“Yank’s a bulldog, when he came to us this fall he was topping out at 82 mph and he trained all winter and he’s gotten up to as high as 87 mph,” Hudson Valley head coach Alex Jurczynski said. “He’s as hard of a worker as you can get. You also can’t forget about him in the classroom, he’s a 4.0 student. We’re lucky to have him.”

After a 5-2 win in the first half of the Mother’s Day doubleheader, the Vikings were looking to close out the series against Onondaga in Game 2. Despite the dominance of the Vikings pitching in Game 1, the Lazers weren’t ready to pack up their bags and head west just yet.

The Vikings jumped out to an early 4-2 lead before Mother nature caused a break in the action in the 3rd inning. The tides turned following the rain delay when the Lazers jumped out to a 5-4 lead in the 4th inning in part to a couple lazy plays by the Vikings on the defensive end.

“We had a rain delay and got a little lazy making some costly errors that hurt us in the end,” Jurczynski added. “We battled back but couldn’t come through with what we needed.”

As soon as the Lazers felt like they were on the verge of forcing a win-or-go home Game 3 on Monday, the Vikings tied the game on a solo homerun by Dan Coleman.

The game would remain tied up until the eighth inning, when Onondaga squeaked across two runs on a costly error by the Vikings.

“The rain delay came at a bad time for sure because we were just starting to gets runs across the plate but in the second game we just didn’t execute in key situations to get that extra run,” said Dan Coleman, a freshman. “At the end of the day my home run was a solo shot, so it was only one run.”

Those two runs would prove to be the difference as the Lazers took Game 2, tying the series and forcing a decisive Game 3.

Winner goes to the Final Four, loser goes home. That’s what was on the line on Monday afternoon when the Lazers and Vikings geared up for a 1:00 PM first pitch back at Joe Bruno Stadium.

In Game 3, Hudson Valley jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the second inning, and despite the Lazers getting a run in the third inning, the rest of the game was all Vikings.

In a 2-1 game heading into the bottom half of the fourth inning, Danny Coleman extended the Hudson Valley lead with a three-run home run. After his second homerun of the series, the Saratoga native still wasn’t done putting the ball over the fence. In the 7th inning, Coleman jacked his second homerun of the game, and third of the series to give Hudson Valley a 4-run lead. Coleman, who has played 34 games, will be heading into the Final Four tied for second in the country with 13 home runs and only two behind the leader, who has 15 on the season in 53 games.

“He’s been our guy all year, every time he comes to the plate you think to yourself…can he do it? And more times than not he comes through for his teammates,” said Jurczynski. “Not only is he outstanding on the field but he’s a great teammate off the field, he never gets too high or too low and he always picks up his teammates. He’s a really special kid.”

The Vikings would go on to win the game after Nick Teitter struck-out the final batter to seal the 6-2 victory. Nick Zuba (Columbia High School) earned the win to send the Vikings to the Final Four.

Despite his individual success in the series, Coleman still values the wins for his team more than anything.

“Playing a big part in my team’s success means everything to me, all I want to do is help my team win, anyway possible,” Coleman said. “I think we just need to go out to the Finger Lakes and keep playing the same baseball we have been. Getting huge pitching performances from the starters and relievers like they have been doing all year, and just keep putting the bat on the ball.”

If the Vikings advance out of the Final Four, they will then move on to play in the Junior College World Series, something that may be new to the Vikings, but not to their coach.

“The expectation is to always get to the World Series but in order to get there you have to get to regionals,” Jurczynski said. “I got there as a player and it was an unbelievable experience, I couldn’t be more happy for my players for the opportunity to play in a Final 4.”

As for the Vikings game plan heading into their biggest game of the season? Play the same baseball they have been playing, Alex Jurczynski says.

“We’re going to play our style of baseball and do our best to manufacture runs and make it to the world series.”

The Vikings, who have won 19 out of their last 24, will look to carry their hot bats out West to the Finger Lakes on Friday, when they face Genesee in the Regional round at 2:oo PM on Friday.

For updates throughout the Final Four, stay tuned to @HVCCVIKINGS on Twitter.

-Connor Hall (@ByConnorHall)