LITTLE FALLS, NY – Good things come in threes, and the Mohawk Valley Diamond Dawgs certainly got a lot of those on Tuesday night.
Three different Diamond Dawgs hit three-run homers, and Cooper Schmidt hit an inside the park grand slam for Saugerties as the two teams combined for 30 runs — and six home runs.
Mohawk Valley got on the board first in the second, on a hard-hit ball to left field by Joe Crenshaw (Richmond), scoring Brodie Freker (George Washington). Harssh Ramayanam Venkkat (Brown) doubled the lead on a ground-rule double to center field to score Crenshaw. Just one batter later, Kyle Coleman (Belmont) extended the lead to five on a towering three-run home run, scoring Venkkat and Wesley Alfonso (American International).
Crenshaw got a three-run bomb of his own in the third, putting another ball into the center field bleachers to score Freker and Nolan Colby (Fairfield). Alfonso would get his own just one batter later, putting yet another ball near Crenshaw’s for a solo home run and a nine-run lead.
Coleman added the tenth run of the night on a double that rolled all the way to the left field wall, scoring Ramayanam Venkkat. Bryon Arias got in on the party just a couple of batters later with the fourth home run of the game, also in center field. In all, 12 batters came to the plate for the Diamond Dawgs in the third, accounting for eight runs.
Another run came home in the fourth on a double by Jake Haarde (Fairfield) that scored Coleman.
The Stallions cut the lead to 12 in the fifth, thanks to an RBI triple by Cooper Schmidt (Embry-Riddle) and a sacrifice fly by Mason Gazzaway (Georgia Southern). Another two runs came home on a single by Chance Sobbry (Chipola).
Crenshaw continued the fireworks in the fifth, putting another ball in the center field bleachers to score himself and Colby. Another run came home on a ground-rule double by Haarde.
The Stallions cut the lead to nine in the next inning, thanks to an inside-the-park grand slam from Cooper Schmidt and RBI singles from Sobbry and a ground out by Jack Beyl (Embry-Riddle).
The lead went back to eight in the bottom of the sixth on a passed ball that scored Freker. The twentieth run of the game came on the sixth home run of the night.
The Stallions would not go away, even down to their supposed last out in the seventh, as an RBI single by Cooper Schmidt cut the lead to nine once again.
But a game that had so many bangs in it ended with a whimper, as a ground rule double by
Ali Hood picked up the win for Mohawk Valley (3-1), while former Diamond Dawg Brendan Rusnack (Lynn) got the loss for Saugerties, who suffers their first loss of the season.
The Diamond Dawgs are back in action on Thursday night when they host the Boonville Lumberjacks. The Stallions head back to Cantine Field on Wednesday to host the Amsterdam Mohawks.
