By Bob Rotruck

Box Score

A big crowd of 3,251 crowd jammed into Shuttleworth Park to cheer the Amsterdam Mohawks onto an 8-4 victory against the Mohawk Valley DiamondDawgs on Saturday night. The game was the first of four fireworks nights on the season for the Mohawks.

Amsterdam improved to 2-1 with the win while Mohawk Valley dropped to 1-2.

Amsterdam was clinging to a 4-3 lead entering the eighth but were able to rally for four runs on only one hit to give themselves a more comfortable advantage. The Mohawks capitalized on one error and two passed balls in the inning while also pulling off their second double-steal of the season with LF Josh Nethaway (UAlbany) taking second and 2B Chase Green (SIU Edwardsville) racing home.

Mohawks' SS Guiseppe Papaccio (Seton Hall) had a pair of RBI to up his team-leading total to six. Third baseman Zak Colby (Faulkner, Ala.) had a couple more singles to build on his league-leading batting average. Colby is now 6-for-11 (.545) this year.

Amsterdam lefty hurler Matt Gage (Siena) came out of the pen to earn the win. He threw two innings allowing two unearned runs surrendering just one hit and one walk.

Mohawk Valley's Tyler Heck (Union, N.Y.) launched a solo home-run to left-center in the fifth for his first hit of the season to get the DiamondDawgs on the board at 1-1. He later added an RBI single in the seventh when they again tied the game at 3-3. Heck finished 3-for-4 with three runs and a steal as well as two RBI.

Amsterdam starter Taylor Martin (Kentucky) threw well in five innings allowing just one run on four hits.

Eddie Fitzpatrick (Brown) went over four innings for Mohawk Valley giving up three hits and three runs, two earned. The loss was tagged to Aaron Casper (Canisius) who surrendered an unearned run in the seventh.

Amsterdam returns to action Sunday at 4:00 on the road at Cooperstown as they will complete their suspended game from Wednesday followed by the originally scheduled game at 5:00. The Mohawks and Hawkeyes will begin the day's action tied at 2-2 in the 12th inning. Amsterdam's next home game is Tuesday night at 7:00 against the Oneonta Outlaws. They will also play an exhibition game Tuesday morning at 10:30 on Area School Field Trip Day.

Mohawk Valley returns home Sunday at 5:00 taking on the Albany Dutchmen.

Listen to Amsterdam Mohawks baseball all season long on ustream.tv/channel/mohawksradio

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