By Jon Sargalis
Box Score
Boonville- The Amsterdam Mohawks had a grand slam time on Saturday night.
The Mohawks hit 2 grand slams as they defeated the Adirondack TrailBlazers 10-6 in 11 innings, Saturday night at the Smith Sports Complex.
It was JaVon Shelby (Kentucky) and John Razzino (Franklin Pierce) that provided the deep flies. After staking the TrailBlazers to a 5-0 lead, Shelby brought the Mohawks within one with a fifth inning grand slam. After the game went to extra innings, Razzino stepped in with the bases loaded in the eleventh inning and gave the Mohawks the boost they would need to get past the Blazers.
Ryan Clark (UNC-Greensboro) started for Amsterdam, and had an uncharacteristic rough start. Adirondack’s leadoff hitter Mike Carter (Rutgers) hit a leadoff homerun in the first inning.
The second inning wasn’t any better for Clark. Greg Wasikowski (Bucknell), RJ Devish (Rutgers), Alex Tuccio (Siena) and Justin Korenblatt (La Salle) all had RBI singles as the Blazers scored 4 runs on 6 hits. It could have been much worse as the Blazers had loaded the bases with only 1 out, but Clark settled down and left them loaded.
After the rocky start, Clark settled down and only allowed the Blazers 3 hits in his final 3 innings of work. Clark lasted 5 innings, allowed 5 runs on 11 hits with 2 walks and 6 strikeouts.
Adirondack starter Franklin Miller (HVCC) was terrific holding the Mohawks off the scoreboard for the first four innings. In the fifth, Miller suddenly lost his control and struggled to throw a strike, he walked Brendan Tracy (Fairfield) and Jonathan Pryor (Wake Forest) to start the inning. Marcus Carson (Kentucky) tried to bunt the runners over, but beat out the throw for a bunt single. With the bases loaded; JaVon Shelby hammered a pitch to left and instantly pulled the Mohawks within one run of the TrailBlazers; 5-4.
Miller settled back down after allowing the Shelby grand slam and ended up pitching 7 innings, only allowing those 4 runs on 6 hits and 4 walks with 6 strikeouts.
Christian Doughty (Holy Cross) pitched the eighth and ninth for Adirondack and allowed a run in each of those innings. Alex DeBellis (Lynn) scored in the eighth after Brendan Tracy beat out an infield single. In the ninth, John Razzino reached on an error which allowed JaVon Shelby to score.
Andy Ward (Florida State) relived Ryan Clark in the sixth inning and pitched 3 dominate innings, only allowing 2 hits.
Joe Randall (Fairfield) came on in the ninth for the save with the Mohawks up 6-5. After allowing a leadoff single; Randall induced a 3-6-3 double play and the game appeared to but over. Unfortunately, Alex Voitik (Holy Cross) had other plans and took Randall’s next pitch over the right field wall to tie the game at 6.
The game would remain that way until the eleventh inning. Jonathan Pryor leadoff the inning with a single up the middle, Marcus Carson then bunted him over to second. JaVon Shelby was intentionally walked and Tom Kain (Lynn) followed with a single to right. With the bases loaded, John Razzino stepped in and hammered a Woddy Bryson (Villanova) pitch to right center for the Mohawks second grand slam of the game, to put the team up 10-6.
Joe Randall stayed on to close out the game and received the win after blowing the save. Randall improves to 4-1 on the season, while Woody Bryson took the loss after giving up the Razzino grand slam; he falls to 2-3 on the season.
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