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It was a night of firsts. The Mohawks’ first road game of the season. The Mohawks first Taiwanese player made his debut and the longest tenured Mohawk finally made his debut in his fourth season on the roster. All this as the Mohawks defeated the Mohawk Valley DiamondDawgs 10-3 on Friday Night at Vet’s Memorial Field.
First was Cai Cheng En who got the start on the mound. He attended FMCC this spring, but calls Taitung, Taiwan home. He went the first 2 innings allowing 1 run on 1 hit with 3 walks and 3 strikeouts before turning the ball over to returning Mohawk Zach Hernandez who went the next 2 innings.
Amsterdam would get on the board first in the second as Jayden Harriel singled home Chris Hoalcraft and Wes Walker drove in Bray Touchstone to make it 2-0.
The DiamondDawgs scored their first run in the bottom of the second off a bases loaded walk, but the Mohawks got that run back as Sebastian Harden reached in the third and became a menace on the basepaths as he took advantage of some Mohawk Valley misplays to score by himself to make it 3-1.
The Mohawks would add a run in three straight innings from the fourth to the sixth as Alex Junghans, Jake Long and Tucker Smith each drove in a run to make it 6-1.
Out of the bullpen, Zach Hernandez and Brad Curtis each went 2 scoreless innings. Joey Gecewicz pitched a scoreless seventh but ran into trouble in the eighth when he loaded the bases without retiring a batter. Enter Sam Falace. As the Mohawks won championships in 2022, 2023 and 2024, Falace was here, on the bench, on the injured list. Now in his fourth summer on the Mohawks, the Siena pitcher was finally ready to make his Mohawks debut. Bases loaded no one out would seem like a tough assignment for your first time out, but not for Falace. Strikeout, strikeout, fly out, inning over, score stays 6-1.
Each team scored in the ninth as the Mohawks added 4 runs to go up 10-1 and Mohawk Valley answered with 2 before making the final score 10-3.
Amsterdam moves to 2-0 on the season, while the DiamondDawgs drop to 0-2.