The Mohawks played the Albany Baseball Club in a doubleheader on Friday at Shuttleworth Park and rolled to a 9-1 win in the first game and won a back-and-forth game 9-8 in the second game.
In the first game Joey Slattery took the first pitch of the game from Logan Forsythe and slapped it back up the middle for a base hit. That would end up being the only hit of the game for Albany as Forsythe, Manny Santos and Mason Veronezi combined to throw a 1-hitter.
It was not a shutout as Forsythe struggled to find his groove in the first inning as no one made contact. After the Slattery single, Matt Thorsen walked. Forsythe then rebounded to strikeout Luke Filippi and Brooks Carter, then lost command again as he walked Brody Kenneston and Ryan Feremi to force in a run but recovered once again to strikeout Aidan Zakarewicz to limit the damage to 1 run. Including the Zakarewicz strikeout, Forsythe would strikeout 5 of the next 6 batters he would face.
In the bottom of the second, Jimmy Dionne reached on an error by the second basemen and Jackson Natili was hit by a pitch which setup Austin Fawley to hit a 3-run home run over the wall in left to put the Mohawks up 3-1.
In the third, Liam Willson worked a leadoff walk, Javar Williams followed and dropped down a bunt and the third basemen overthrew first base allowing Willson to score. Evan Haeger hit an RBI single to right that scored Williams and Haeger scored on a Cade Ladehoff sac-fly to center that made it 6-1.
In the fourth, Rob Rispoli singled on a line drive up the middle, stole second and third on the next 2 pitches and set himself to score on a Jake Sparks sac-fly to center to make it 7-1.
Javar Williams led off the fifth inning with a double that dropped between the third basemen and left fielder and would score on a Tyler Figueroa single. Evan Haeger would follow with a broken bat infield single and move up to third on a failed back pick by the catcher and score on a Cade Ladehoff ground out as the Mohawks took a 9-1 lead.
Logan Forsythe pitched 5 innings and finished striking out the last 4 batters he faced. He ended with 11 strikeouts, allowing 1 run on 1 hit with 6 walks. Manny Santos and Mason Veronezi would pitch perfect sixth and seventh innings to finish the game as Mohawks pitching retired the last 13 batters in a row and recorded 13 total strikeouts.
Forsythe picked up his second win of the season, improving to 2-1, while Jake O’Connor took the loss falling to 0-4.
The second game was a wild back-and-forth affair. Jackson Natili got Amsterdam on the board first as he hit a 2-run home run in the 2nd inning.
Mohawks starter Justus Agosto ran into some trouble in the fourth inning as he issued back-to-back walks to start the inning and then surrendered a game-tying 2-run single to Brooks Carter to even the game at 2.
Amsterdam would answer right back in the bottom of the fourth as Steven Spalitta walked to lead off the inning and scored on a Drake Digiorno single to put the Mohawks back in front, 3-2.
In the fifth Sebastian Harden doubled and scored on a Rob Rispoli sac-fly to give the Mohawks a 4-2 lead.
Albany battled back in the sixth as Peyton Fall came in and loaded the bases. Brenden Kline came in with 2 outs and tried to bail out Fall, but a wild pitch scored Luke Filippi and then Aidan Zakarewicz hit a go-ahead 2-run single to right scoring Brody Kenneston and Donovan Rhoden to put Albany in front 5-4.
The Mohawks responded immediately the next inning as Zach Eldred led off with a walk, Steven Spalitta was hit by a pitch and Jimmy Dionne came in to drop down a sacrifice bunt, but the throw was not handled by the first basemen and allowed Eldred to score the tying run to knot it at 5. Drake Digiorno stepped in and delivered a huge blow as he rocked a triple off the wall in right center as Spalitta and Dionne both scored to put the Mohawks back in front by a score of 7-5.
Brian Yetter came in to try and close out the game in the seventh and final inning of the doubleheader. However, Albany had different plans. Jan Avila and Joey Slattery each singled to start the inning. Slattery stole second and the throw got away, allowing Avila to score making it 7-6. Then Luke Filippi stepped in and crushed a go-ahead 2-run home run to left. Yetter rebounded to strike out the next 2 batters, striking out the side, but the damage was done as Albany took an 8-7 lead.
That would set up a dramatic bottom of the seventh. With 1 out, Evan Haeger walked and brought up Cade Ladehoff who would deliver another clutch hit as he hit a game-tying double to right center. Zach Eldred grounded out which moved Ladehoff to third base with 2 outs. Steven Spalitta came to the plate and took 2 called strikes before hitting a slow roller to short. Hustling down the line, Spalitta dove into first base a split second before the throw got there and the umpire signaled safe as the rest of the team came charging out of the dugout, ripping off Spalitta’s jersey and giving him a Gatorade shower as the Mohawks claimed a 9-8 victory.
“I knew I was going to have to get down the line real fast and I wanted to make sure I left everything that I could, so I thought I’d dive. I’d probably get there faster. I guess it helped out, I was safe to win the game” said Spalitta.
Amsterdam claimed their 30th win of the season as they now sit at 30-6 as Brian Yetter picked up his first win of the season. Albany fell to 8-25-1 as Matt Thorsen was saddled with the loss, falling to 0-2.