JUNE 20, 2004
‘Inning-eaters’ spark Eagles’ sweep
By PETE TOBEY - tobey@poststar.com
Local Sports - THE POST-STAR

GLENS FALLS -- Glens Falls pitching coach Jeff Keith calls starters Jeremy Hall and Brett Zamzow "inning-eaters" -- put them on the mound, and they'll be there for a while.

Case in point: Saturday's New York Collegiate Baseball League doubleheader against the Amsterdam Mohawks at East Field.

Hall went the distance in a three-hit shutout in the first game, a 3-0 victory for the Golden Eagles.

In the nightcap, Zamzow pitched most of a 2-1 victory to give Glens Falls (13-3) the sweep of the two seven-inning games.

Both Hall and Zamzow improved their records to 4-0.

"We haven't had to use our bullpen very often because those guys are inning-eaters," Keith said. "They're bullpen-savers. They can give us seven or eight quality innings every time. It would be a surprise to take them out after only a few innings. They can shorten a game for us."

Backed by solid defense, Hall finished the first game with three strikeouts and three walks.

"My 1-2 pitches (were working), my fastball and change-up," said Hall, a junior at East Tennessee State. "If I got ahead of them, then I'd come back with my splitter. You just have to hit your spots, and if they hit it, it doesn't matter because these guys behind me make plays."

The Eagles retired the side in order four times.

"They both have real good hard stuff and good command of their breaking balls," Glens Falls coach John Mayotte said. "They throw a full assortment of pitches and they pitch with a lot of confidence because of our defense."

Glens Falls got on the board in the second inning when Brad Beatty blasted a towering double to the right-field warning track. David Williams laid down a perfect bunt single to move Beatty to third, and Aaron Hepner scored him with a full-count single to right.

The Eagles added two more runs in the fifth, after Jeremy Goldschmeding and Terry Blunt led off with singles. Goldschmeding scored on an errant throw attempting to catch Blunt stealing, and Blunt scored on a sacrifice fly by Chris Carlson to complete the scoring.

Glens Falls finished with six hits against two Amsterdam pitchers. Mike Parker led Amsterdam with two singles.

"We knew it would be a defensive struggle," Mayotte said. "You have to do the little things well. With Jeremy pitching, you don't need a lot of wiggle room."

In the second game, Glens Falls made the most of very few chances against Mohawks left-hander Brian Krummenaker, who hurled a three-hitter with three strikeouts.

The Eagles opened the scoring on Carlson's RBI single up the middle in the first inning. Glens Falls opened a 2-0 lead in the fifth, as Eric Lawson doubled, was sacrificed to third, and scored on Corey Rodriguez's single down the right-field line.

Zamzow had to work out of jams in the fifth and sixth innings. With no outs in the fifth, the Navarro (Texas) Junior College right-hander surrendered back-to-back doubles by Joe Mariano and John Marcella, Amsterdam's No. 7 and 8 batters. However, Zamzow struck out the next two batters and induced a flyout to end the threat.

In the sixth, the Mohawks (7-7) loaded the bases on a single by Jered McGuire and two walks. McGuire scored on a fielding error to cut the Glens Falls lead to 2-1, but another flyout ended the inning.

"I was starting to leave my fastballs up -- I got tired before I was supposed to," Zamzow said. "In the fifth, when they had second and third, I started hitting my spots again. Our defense has been solid all year at every position. We have no worries."

Shawn Ryan, the former Stillwater standout now at the University at Albany, relieved Zamzow in the seventh. He gave up a one-out double to Andy Kiriakedes, but got the final two outs to pick up the save.

The paid attendance at the game was 235, but a number of free passes pushed the attendance closer to 300.

The Eagles are scheduled to play today at 1 p.m. at Watertown.