Friday night’s contest between the Mohawk Valley DiamondDawgs and Amsterdam Mohawks featured a little bit of everything. Records were broken, rivalry trophies were claimed, and a lot of runs were scored, mainly by one side.
The Mohawks used an eight-run fifth inning to put the game out of reach on the way to their 34th win of the season. After four innings, Amsterdam led 1-0 after Tyler Frank (Florida Atlantic) doubled and scored on Tristen Carranza’s (New Mexico State) groundout to short.
With one out in the bottom of the fifth, Marcus Still (New Mexico State) worked a walk and scored one batter later on Andruw Gazzola’s (Stony Brook) triple to right field. Chris Givin (Xavier) followed with a single to score Gazzola. After Frank worked a walk, Joe Genord (South Florida) launched a three-run home run to left field. With the three RBIs, Genord set a new PGCBL single season record for RBIs at 45. Carranza walked and stole second before Nick Patten (Delaware) singled to make it 7-0 Amsterdam. Patten and Terrence Pinkston (Norfolk State) scored on Gazzola’s RBI single to make it 9-0.
Amsterdam added two more in the bottom of the eighth. Five straight walks forced in Andrew Rouse (Marist) and Frank. In the top of the ninth, the DiamondDawgs finally got on the board. Sean Mazzio (Wagner) led off with a walk before Mac Crispino (Fairfield) singled. Mazzio scored one batter later when Michael Ketchmark (Dartmouth) doubled to left. Crispino and Ketchmark would score when Justin Fowler (Dartmouth) reached on an error to make it 11-3.
With the win, the Mohawks won the Patriot Federal Bank Cup, handed out annually to the regular season series winner between the two teams. After dropping three of the first four games, Amsterdam won the final three contests to take the series 4-3. In four seasons, Amsterdam has won the cup each year.
On the mound, Austin Keen (Kentucky) improved to 4-2 after pitching six scoreless innings in which he surrendered just one hit, walked one, and struck out five. The loss went to Mohawk Valley starter Jonathan McKinney (Georgia College), who dropped to 2-3.
Amsterdam will look to make it seven straight wins on Saturday when they travel to East Field to play the Glens Falls Dragons at 7 p.m. Mohawk Valley will look to bounce back on Saturday when they host the Newark Pilots in Little Falls at 6:35 p.m. While Amsterdam has clinched the #1 seed in the East and will face #4 Oneonta on Monday, Mohawk Valley and Albany are battling for the second seed and home field advantage in the quarterfinals.