By Jon Sargalis

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For the first time this season, the home team prevailed in a Mohawks-Stallions matchup. It was the Mohawks who came away with the 11-8 victory Tuesday night at Rao Family Stadium over the Saugerties Stallions.

Originally scheduled as a doubleheader, the game was changed into a single game due to the weather.

It was the Stallions who struck first. After reaching on a walk, Camren Carroll scored on a wild pitch to give the Stallions a 1-0 lead.

Amsterdam tied it in the second as Sebastian Harden drove in Alex Junghans and advanced to third on an error.

Saugerties retook the lead in the fifth. Reece Moroney was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning and scored as Justin Ford beat out a double play to give the Stallions a 2-1 lead.

The Mohawks answered right back in the bottom of the fifth as Brandon McCraine hit an RBI double to left that drove in Chris Hoalcraft to tie the game at 2.

The Stallions wasted no time taking the lead back in the sixth as Travis Hobbensiefken homered on the first pitch of the inning to give Saugerties a 3-2 lead.

The pedestrian start to the game was turned on its head following the seventh inning stretch. After a combined 5 runs through 6 and a half innings, the final two full innings saw a combined 14 runs cross the plate.

The rally started in the bottom of the seventh as Jon Young, Jr. took the third pitch of the inning and lined a double to right field. Young then stole third and tied the game at 3 as he came home on the overthrow by the catcher. Luke Filippi drew a walk and Chris Hoalcraft followed with a double. After a walk to Brandon McCraine that loaded the bases, Will Cowan hit the go-ahead double to score Filippi and Hoalcraft to give the Mohawks a 5-3 lead. It was déjà vu on the very next pitch as it was Bray Touchstone’s turn to hit a 2-run double that drove in McCraine and Cowan and suddenly the Mohawks put together a 5-run inning to take a 7-3 lead.

The déjà vu continued into the top of the eighth. A single and a walk put two runners on for Travis Hobbensiefken who homered in his previous at-bat, and he deposited the 2-1 pitch over the left field fence in his second straight home run and pull the Stallions back within a run at 7-6.

Reis Brammer took over for the Stallions in the bottom of the eighth and struggled to find the strike zone as he issued 4 straight walks to begin the inning and allowed Brad Curtis to score on a wild pitch during that sequence to give Amsterdam an 8-6 lead. Things then got interesting on the basepaths. Jon Young, Jr. was thrown out trying to steal third, then Sebastian Harden and Luke Filippi successfully pulled off a double steal, the overthrow allowed Harden to score and Filippi to take third on the error to make it 9-6. It base running wouldn’t have mattered if they had waited one more pitch as Chris Hoalcraft hit an RBI double to center and drove in Filippi to make it 10-6. Finally, Brandon McCraine drove in Hoalcraft with a line drive single to center and Amsterdam went up 11-6.

Now playing with a 5-run lead, Derek Duval tried to lock down the 5-out save, but ran into trouble. Justin Ford hit an infield single with one out and an error allowed Camren Carroll to score to make it 11-7. Following a fly out, Dylan Passo hit an RBI single to score Ford and make it 11-8. That brought Parker Aikens into the game who would secure the final out for the 11-8 win.

The Mohawks recorded 7 doubles in the game and 2 each from Chris Hoalcraft and Will Cowan as Cowan had 3 hits. Travis Hobbensiefken’s 2 home runs were the only extra base hits for the Stallions. Justin Ford had 3 hits for Saugerties as both teams combined for 24 hits in the game.

Cole Miller got the win in his Mohawks debut and Parker Aikens recorded his first save of the season as the Mohawks improved to 17-6-1. Jace VanValkenburg fell to 1-1 as the Stallions now sit at 12-10 on the season.

The Mohawks will be back in action tomorrow night for Fireworks Night as they will host the Utica Blue Sox at 6:35 PM.

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