By Ian Nicholas

Box Score

The Mohawks (17-3) avenged their 3-2 Monday loss to the Boonville Baseball Club (6-8) with a dominant 17-3 win in seven innings from Shuttleworth Park on Saturday night. With the victory, Amsterdam improved to 2-1 this summer vs. Boonville while snapping a two-game losing skid at home. The Mohawks scored their most runs in a single contest all season with 17 (off 18 hits), and have now scored 40 runs over the last three games. 

Conner Whittaker (Florida State) made his second start of the week for Amsterdam and got off to a hot start with a 1-2-3 inning which included a pair of punchouts. In the bottom of the first, he’d receive plenty of run support. First, Gage Miller (Bishop State CC) scored from third on a wild pitch from Boonville starter Dan Tauken (Rockland CC). Next, Mark Black (Gardner-Webb) hit a weak ground ball down the left-field line that scored Brett Coker to extend the lead 2-0 Mohawks. Moments later, Zach Gardiner (Marshall) blasted a two-run home run over the right-field wall to surpass his own teammate, Hunter Thomas (Arkansas St), for the most RBIs in the PGCBL with 22. Tauken allowed the first seven Mohawks to reach without recording an out, as he was pulled after loading the bases. 

Reliever Bryce Collis (St. John Fisher) came out of the bullpen and issued a bases-loaded walk to the second batter he faced in Frankie Marinelli (Manhattan), as Josh Overbeek (Pittsburgh) scored to extend the lead 5-0 Amsterdam. With the bases still loaded, Gage Miller launched an 0-1 pitch straight to left-center field and over the wall for the Mohawk's second grand slam of 2022. 

Amsterdam extended its 9-0 advantage in the bottom of the second after a leadoff homer from Jacob Hand (WPI) carried over the right-field wall for his third four-bagger of the season. Boonville finally responded in the top of the third when they scored three runs off Whittaker. Gio Calamia (Mount Saint Mary) notched an RBI single and later scored on a passed ball, and Scott Seeker (Mount Saint Mary) hit a groundball which scored a run. The Mohawk’s Cameron Love (Rutgers) had an RBI groundout of his own in the bottom of the inning as Amsterdam still led 11-3. 

In the bottom of the fifth, the Mohawks kept the good times rolling. Overbeek scored from third off an RBI single from Love, Hand came home after a bases-loaded walk from Miller, and Love made it around the horn after another bases-loaded walk, this time for Black. Runs No. 16 & 17 came in the bottom of the sixth off reliever Timmy Flippen (Citrus High School) as both Hand and Love scored runs yet again. 

The Amsterdam bullpen provided three scoreless innings after Whittaker pitched four innings of three-run ball including two hits, six strikeouts, and two walks. Jacob Lapham (Hudson Valley CC) got the win, tossing two shutout innings with two strikeouts and no hits. Von Baker (Cornell) closed it out with two strikeouts and two walks in a scoreless top of the seventh. 

On the road tomorrow, Amsterdam can improve its three-game win streak against Glens Falls (4-14) in a doubleheader beginning at 5:00 pm. On the other hand, Boonville is at Watertown (4-16) for a 5:00 pm showdown.

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