By Jon Sargalis
Box Score Photos Photos Brady
It was an early pitching duel between Matthew Heiberger and Ryan King Saturday at Shuttleworth Park before the Mohawks claimed a 7-5 win over the Utica Blue Sox.
It was a scoreless game into the fifth inning before Ryan King blinked and allowed the first runs of the game to the Mohawks. Rob Rispoli drew a leadoff walk and scored on a Liam Willson triple to break the scoreless tie and put the Mohawks in front. Then Keith Griffin called a bunt play as Drake Digiorno sacrificed himself to get Willson home and put the Mohawks up 2-0.
Both teams went to the bullpen in the sixth. Matthew Heiberger pitched 5-shutout innings allowing 1 hit and 1 walk with 4 strikeouts for the Mohawks. Ryan King allowed 2 runs over 5 innings for the Blue Sox with 2 hits, 2 walks and 6 strikeouts.
With Heiberger out of the game, Utica got on the board in the sixth as Norris McClure drove in Mike Benedetto to cut the Mohawks lead to 2-1.
Cade Ladehoff had other ideas as he homered in the bottom of the sixth for his 4th home run of the season and it also marked homers on back-to-back games as the Mohawks went up 3-1. “Luckily I was sitting slider there and he threw it to me right down the middle and I didn’t miss it” said Ladehoff after the game.
The big inning for the Mohawks came in the seventh as 4 runs came across. Rob Rispoli scored on a Javar Williams sac-fly for the first run. Then Evan Haeger hit a little league home run as he beat out an infield single scoring Michael O’Brien, but the resulting error allowed Pete Daniel and Haeger to score as well as the Mohawks took a 7-1 lead.
That would be it for the Mohawks offence, but the bullpen had struggles to record the final 6 outs.
After pitching well in the seventh, Zach Eldred returned for the eighth and loaded the bases without recording an out. Parker Aikens took over and after striking out the first batter he allowed an RBI single to Johnny Brucato and after recording another strikeout he hit Wyatt Hunt with the bases loaded to force in Mike Benedetto. The bleeding stopped there as Aikens got another strikeout to end the inning, but not before Utica cut the deficit to 7-3.
Gage Haley took over on the mound in the ninth and it was another interesting inning as the Blue Sox refused to go down without a fight. After striking out the first batter, Haley surrendered a double to Yomar Carreras and then walked Johnny Brucato. Haley regained his composure to strike out the next batter, but with 2 outs, Damian Witty hit a 2-run double making it 7-5. The Utica rally ended there as Haley got the next batter to groundout to third and secure the Mohawks 7-5 win.
Matthew Heiberger picked up the win improving to 2-0 for the 14-3 Mohawks. Ryan King took the loss falling to 0-2 for the 8-9-1 Blue Sox.
More News Articles