By Sam Federman
Box Score
AMSTERDAM, N.Y. - Evan Haeger guided the ball through the hole into center field and immediately turned to the Mohawks’ dugout.
As he made his way down the first base line, he was screaming into his team’s bench, energizing the group that had fallen behind 8-0 in the fifth inning a potential PGCBL clinching game. The heavy rain beat down on the ballpark as the Elmira Pioneers were beating down on the Mohawks, trying to extend the season just one more day.
As the inning continued, Amsterdam loaded the bases for Tyler Figueroa with one out. The new App State commit pulled the ball through the infield into left, and Haeger scored from third. He nodded vigorously on the way back to the dugout, stopping Sebastian Harden before he entered the batter's box to impart even more energy.
Even as Amsterdam began to change the momentum of the game, the team still struggled with runners in scoring position. Harden and then Liam Willson both got out, ending the promising inning with just one run across, with three runners left on base and an 8-1 deficit.
Elmira was able to push the lead from 2-0 to 8-0 as Zach Eldred stayed in the game for his 4th inning of work just two days after throwing against the Stallions in Wednesday’s East Division Final. A leadoff walk followed by a Darryn Callahan single put two runners on for Calvin Worrilow, who laid a bunt down. Amsterdam catcher Jackson Natili, who has been so reliable defensively all year, bypassed the throw to first, instead attempting the much riskier throw to second base, which bounced in front of and snuck past shortstop Rob Rispoli, allowing Andy Schroeder to score.
Evan Blanchard pushed the lead to 5-0 with a two-run double, ending Eldred’s day, and thrusting Brian Yetter into a spot where he had to stop the bleeding.
Yetter ended up hitting Bennett Shealor, and walking the number ten hitter, Aidan Stern to load the bases for the top of the order. Matt Leahy made Yetter pay for the cardinal sin with a three-run double to left field, completely silencing the crowd and bringing Elmira’s lead to eight runs.
After getting the first run back in the bottom of the fourth, Keith Griffin turned to Peyton Fall for the top of the fifth in a familiar situation.
In Game 1 of the 2023 Championship Series, Fall relieved Jack Seppings with four scoreless and hitless innings in just his second summer appearance leading up to his freshman autumn. While he entered that game with a slim lead to protect, the common thread of holding Elmira bats silent at Shuttleworth Park in the biggest game of the year ran through. He got three outs, including two strikeouts, in the fifth, sending the Mohawk bats back to work with the same seven-run deficit, but he wouldn’t come back out for nearly twenty minutes.
During that time, Amsterdam continued to chip away at Elmira’s stronghold. Pios starting pitcher Aidan Cook allowed just one hit through the first three innings, but the Mohawks saw him significantly better the second and third time around. With one out and runners at second and third, Haeger dove headfirst into first base to beat out a ground ball to shortstop, scoring Javar Williams.
While Haeger finished the regular season with a 1.075 OPS and fifteen extra-base hits, it will be his hustle plays, beating out infield singles, stretching singles into doubles, and working terrific at-bats that define a sizable portion of his Mohawk legacy.
Cade Ladehoff drove Natili in from third, cutting the lead to five, and Fall went back out to the mound for the sixth.
With a new battery-mate in Steven Spalitta taking Natili’s spot, Fall struck out the side, heading back to the dugout with a burst of emotion.
Cook’s extremely high pitch count forced manager Andy Drum to replace him with Larsen Burch at the start of the sixth inning, and Amsterdam immediately struck. Aiden Stewart doubled and came around to score, then Natili drew a walk to load the bases with two outs, and Drum made the decision to pull the plug on Burch.
Nolan Terwilliger trotted out to the mound plunked Haeger and walked Ladehoff, cutting the lead to 8-6 with Jake Sparks pinch-hitting for Jimmy Dionne.
The Mohawks could not afford to leave multiple runners in scoring position for the third straight inning, and when Sparks hit a lazy fly ball into left field, it appeared as though they’d done just that.
Aidan Stern settled under the ball and watched it fall into his mitt. As the stadium let out a collective groan, the baseball slipped from the leather, and dropped to the wet outfield grass. By the time he reached down to pick it up and toss it back into the infield, two Amsterdam baserunners had crossed home plate. The groan of seconds ago had turned into a shockwave of euphoria and surprise as the home side had improbably evened up the score at eight runs apiece.
Griffin sent Fall back out to the mound, where he fired off a third scoreless bridge inning. New life had been injected into the ballpark, and all of the momentum was on the side of the Mohawks as the first two batters of the bottom of the seventh reached base.
However, those two runners would have to wait for the rain to slow down before getting the chance to score. While the delay was short, it gave Elmira the time it needed to settle back down, and get out of the inning with no damage done.
Two nights after saving Amsterdam’s season in the top of the ninth against Saugerties, Manny Santos once again made his way from the bullpen to the pitcher’s mound with everything on the line. He recovered from putting runners on second and third by striking out two batters in a row, ending the inning with the game still tied.
Terwilliger saw Santos’ bet and called on the turn himself, stranding Ladehoff’s double at second by retiring the ensuing two batters.
When Santos pushed all of his chips to the center of the table for a 1-2-3 top of the ninth, his counterpart wouldn’t have an answer for Amsterdam’s river card.
Figueroa reached on a throwing error by Blanchard, and two batters later, found himself on third base with zero outs, just 90 feet from the title.
He waited and watched with intent as Rob Rispoli’s fly ball soared through the damp right field air, and triggered a mad dash to home plate as soon as it fell into the glove of Andy Schroeder. Shealor, Elmira’s catcher, picked the ball up off one hop just a step in front of home plate as Figueroa began his dive on the opposite side of the pentagon. When Shealor turned and frantically dove across the plate to apply the tag, Figueroa’s outstretched arm beat him to the spot.
The home plate umpire spread his arms out as Figueroa popped up off the ground and tossed his helmet, soon joining the rest of his teammates in a rush to make a dogpile on Rispoli between first and second base.
Yet another group of Amsterdam Mohawks had held up the organization’s championship standard, clinching a miraculous third consecutive PGCBL crown with a 9-8 victory that ran fans through every single emotion one could possibly feel during a ballgame.
Raindrops fell on the celebration like a final scene in a Hollywood classic, serving as a fitting finale to a night and a summer that continually reminded of the sport’s undying romantic charm.