By Josh McMullen – Mohawk Valley Diamond Dawgs
LITTLE FALLS, NY – Before Thursday night’s game against the Albany Dutchmen, the Mohawk Valley Diamond Dawgs honored departing Albany head coach Nick Davey with a commemorative bat thanking him for his 13 years of service to the Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League.
Then, the Dawgs and Dutchmen used their bats to beat on each other’s pitching corps.
Mohawk Valley and Albany combined for seven extra-base hits, but it was an RBI single by Noah Lucier (Sandown, NH/Fairfield) that would bring home the 11-10 win for the Diamond Dawgs.
Pete Durocher (Emerson, NJ/Manhattan) got the game going thanks to a rare double error by Albany second baseman Danny Rogers (Troy, NY/Central Connecticut State). Rogers dropped a sure pop fly by Noah Lucier (/Fairfield), then threw the ball over third baseman Chance Checca’s (Ballston Spa, NY/Herkimer) head, allowing Durocher to score and Lucier to advance to third. All of Mohawk Valley’s baserunners got on base thanks to walks (three of them) and Lucier’s error.
The Diamond Dawgs would extend the lead to two in the second, thanks to back-to-back doubles by Richie Sica (Wyckoff, NJ/Fairfield) and Marshall Awtry (Hockessin, DE/Goldey-Beacom). Awtry’s double, a jolted ball to left field, scored Sica from second. Durocher would get back on the scoresheet as well, knocking a ball into center field for an RBI single, scoring Awtry, as would Lucier on the same thing. This would score two runs, and then Alfredo Delgado (Bronx, NY/Manhattan) would bring another home – this time Durocher – with an RBI single that came very close to clearing the wall in left field.
Zach Brush (New York Mills, NY/LeMoyne) extended the lead to seven in the third, thanks to yet another double, this one slapped almost to the wall on the fly. That hit would bring in Awtry jogging.
The Dutchmen would get on the board in the fourth, thanks to a looping RBI single into center field by Austin Bode (Columbus, IN/Louisville). That hit would bring Nick Schwartz (Massapequa, NY/Central Connecticut State) in from second.
Matt Bergevin (Tempe, AZ/Fairfield) cut the lead to two with just one swing of the bat, slamming a ball to left-center field for a grand slam in the sixth.
Albany cut the lead to just one in the seventh, thanks to an RBI hopper by Caden Shapiro (Toronto, Ontario, Canada/Princeton) that scored Checca. They would tie it up on a bloop single by Max Gebauer (Guilderland, NY/Franklin Pierce) one batter later that scored Rogers. Then another batter later, Shapiro would come home on a sacrifice fly by David Silva Jr. (Tontogany, OH/Ohio Dominican). Yet another sacrifice fly, this time by Tyler Young (Doylestown, PA/Lehigh), brought home Gebauer and extended the lead to two.
Gebauer would add some insurance in the ninth with a sacrifice fly that scored Checca. Mohawk Valley would get Delgado home on an RBI single by Awtry in the bottom of the ninth, the first of three runs the Diamond Dawgs would get to tie up the game.
The Dutchmen would leave the bases loaded in the extra inning, but Lucier would make sure it didn’t end in a tie as he looped an RBI single to right field, scoring Brush and winning the game.
Billy Hoffacker (Erial, NJ/LeMoyne) got the win for Mohawk Valley (23-17), who have won four straight. Scott Griesemer (St. Augustine, FL/North Florida) was saddled with the loss for Albany (17-21), who have lost four in a row.
Mohawk Valley goes back on the road on Friday to take on the Amsterdam Mohawks at Shuttleworth Park before a Saturday game at Murnane Field against the Utica Blue Sox. They will return for their penultimate home game on Tuesday when they host the Boonville Baseball Club. The Dutchmen will be back in action on Friday when they play the first half of a home-and-home with the Saugerties Stallions.
