By Jon Sargalis

Box Score     Photos

The Saugerties Stallions came away with a sloppy 7-4 win over the Amsterdam Mohawks Monday night at Cantine Field as there were 10 total errors in the game as each team committed 5 each.

Andrew Amato got the Stallions on the board immediately as the 2023 PGCBL MVP belted a leadoff home run off Mohawks starter Logan Forsythe for a 1-0 lead. That was the only blemish for Forsythe as he allowed just that one hit with 2 walks and 7 strikeouts in 3 innings of work.

Amsterdam got on the board in the third as Drake Digiorno singled and scored on a Jackson Natili single to draw the game even at 1.

Peyton Fall took over and pitched a scoreless fourth. The fifth inning was a different story as Saugerties scored 4 runs. Mario Trivella worked a leadoff walk and Nate Manley followed with a double down the left field line. That drew the hook as Manny Santos took over on the mound, unfortunately it wasn’t effective as Justin Ford walked to load the bases and Eddie Yamin followed with a 2-run double down the left field line against his former team to give the Stallions a 3-1 lead. Manny would rebound to strikeout the next 4 batters in a row to end the inning. However, the strikeout of Bayram Hot was a wild pitch which allowed him to reach base and allowed Justin Ford to score. Then as Ryan Recio struck out on 3 pitches, Hot stole second and Yamin stole home as Rob Rispoli cutoff the throw but overthrew Jackson Natili at home as Yamin scored to make it 5-1.

In the seventh, Steven Spalitta reached on a single, advanced to third on an error in center and scored on a Drake Digiorno single to cut the Saugerties led to 5-2.

The Stallions got that run back in the seventh as Eddie Yamin reached on an error and scored as Matt McIntire doubled to right center making it 6-2.

In the eighth Evan Haeger singled up the middle and advanced on a fielder’s choice. With Aiden Steward up, a ground ball to short looked to be a routine putout at first with Haeger advancing to third, however Haeger kept going and slid in under the tag at the plate to cut the Stallions lead to 6-3.

Saugerties once again got that run back in the bottom of the eighth as Tyler Bak reached on a leadoff walk and scored on a Justin Ford sac-fly to extend the lead to 7-3.

Amsterdam still made things interesting in the ninth. With 2 on and 2 out there was a ground ball hit by Evan Haeger to second, but first basemen Eddie Yamin was called off the bag as Luke Szepek scored to make it 7-4. Jake Sparks walked to load the bases, but Steven Spalitta would strikeout to end the game.

The Mohawks suffered back-to-back losses for the first time since the PGCBL Championship in 2021 to the Stallions as they now sit at 21-5 while Peyton Fall took the loss to fall to 0-1. The Stallions improved to 19-7-2 despite striking out 17 times as Matt Drilings improved to 2-0 and Sean Duke earned his first save of the season.

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