On a night where the Amsterdam Mohawks needed a win over the Cooperstown to keep pace with the DiamondDawgs for third place in the Eastern Division, Matt Snyder (Fulton-Montgomery CC) was lights out. In front of a Sunday night crowd of 884 Mohawk fans, Snyder threw a gem allowing only three hits in six strong innings of work.

 

Cooperstown was able to draw first blood against Snyder in the second inning. After two quick Hawkeye outs, Austin March (UC Davis) was able to slap a pitch into right field to begin the rally. 

 

Stefan Jordan (North Carolina A&T) hit a hard ground ball to Mohawks shortstop John Sansone (Florida State). Sansone bobbled the ball and Jordan reached base safely. First baseman Rocky DeSantis (Garden City CC) drove the first pitch he saw from Snyder into right field and March came around to score the first run of the game. 

Snyder threw a wild pitch and both Jordan and DeSantis advanced. Cooperstown's Ryan Hanahan (Marietta) walked to load the bases and Brendan O'Reilly walked to bring in Jordan, pushing Cooperstown's lead to 2-0.

Amsterdam answered back and took the lead in the bottom half of the second inning, thanks to some timely hitting. Brian Ruby (Binghamton) led off the inning with a walk. Cooperstown starting pitcher Cody Smith (Black Hawk) quickly got the next two batters out, but plunked Ronnie Bernick (Canisius) in the knee with two outs. 

Kyle Barrett (Kentucky) hit an RBI double into the right centerfield gap bringing Ruby around to score, cutting the Cooperstown lead to one run. The Mohawks tied the game then took the lead 3-2 from Jordan Ebert (Auburn) and Ed Charlton (NJIT) back-to-back RBI singles.

Snyder pitched four consecutive shutout innings before being taken out of the game after the sixth inning. He finished with seven strikeouts allowing only the two hits and two walks. The two runs surrendered in the second inning were unearned, dropping Snyder's ERA on the year to a league-leading 1.52. 

The Mohawks added another run in the fifth inning on a Devin Wenzel (Cincinnati) sacrifice fly that plated Shane Zimmer (Canisius). 

  

In the seventh inning, the Mohawks tacked on three more runs. After struggling at the plate for most of this year, Amsterdam's designated hitter Ronnie Bernick drove a first pitch fastball from Hawkeyes' reliever Colton Kibler (Garden City CC) over the right field wall for a two-run homerun. Jordan Ebert drove in his second RBI of the game on a single to center giving the Mohawks a 7-2 lead after seven innings.

Christian Bartholomew (Wake Forest), Chris Kalica (St. John's), Mike Urbanski (Binghamton) each pitched one shutout inning out of the Mohawks bullpen. 

The Cooperstown Hawkeyes and Amsterdam Mohawks are both off on Monday because of a league-wide off day, but return to action on Tuesday.

Cooperstown (11-17) travels to Newark to take on the Pilots in a 7:05 game. The Hawkeyes are looking to end their nine-game slide. Amsterdam (18-15) is also away on Tuesday, heading to Veterans Memorial Park in Little Falls for a crucial game against the Mohawk Valley DiamondDawgs with major playoff implications. Amsterdam will put Jeremy Soule (Fairfield) on the mound in that game. 

 

                             R H E (LOB)

CH -  020 000 000  2 3 5 (5)

L - CH Smith (0-3)

Extra Base Hits

2B:  AM - Barrett (3), Ruby (4)

HR: AM - Bernick (1)