GLENS FALLS—In the final game between the two best teams in the New York Collegiate Baseball League's East Division, the first-place Glens Falls Golden Eagles (27-11) and the second-place Amsterdam Mohawks (26-12), delighted more than 500 fans at East Field with an incredible game that could have gone either way.
Unfortunately, Amsterdam ended up on the winning end, defeating the Glens Falls 3-1 in nine innings. The loss puts the Golden Eagles' New York Collegiate Baseball League East Division lead to just one-half game over the Mohawks with three scheduled games left for both teams.
Glens Falls plated their lone run on double from freshman Pepito Moreno (Pima C.C.) that scored freshman second baseman Kevin Berry (New Orleans), who led off the fifth with a sharp single to left.
Berry finished with 2-for-3 with two singles and one run scored.
On Berry's second single, which came in the seventh inning, Moreno stepped up the bat with two outs and the Golden Eagles down 2-1.
Moreno then crushed the 1-2 pitch deep to left and raced around second base feeling he had just given the Golden Eagles a 3-2 lead with his first homerun of the 2009 summer season.
But to no avail. Freshman left fielder Mel Rojas Jr. (Wabash Valley C.C.) timed his jump perfectly, leaped up over the wall, robbed Moreno of an extra base hit, and ended to inning.
"That was the ballgame. That broke our back," Glens Falls head coach John Mayotte said. "That was a game-changing play," Mayotte said. "You kind of get disheartened a little bit."
Junior right fielder Anthony Giansanti (Siena) walked in the first and fourth innings. In the first, he advanced all the way to third after he stole second and went to third base on a pass ball.
Sophomore first basemen Sean Lamont (Georgetown) singled in the fourth.
Glens Falls finished with just four hits, compared to Amsterdam who erupted for 13 hits.
Pitching in his sixth start of the summer, junior pitcher Nathan Forer (Southern Illinois) picked up his second straight loss and now holds a 5-2 win-loss record in eight appearances. Forer finished with six and one-thirds innings pitched, allowing one earned run on nine hits with three strikeouts.
Both Forer and freshman Tony Dischler (Louisiana Monroe) are now tied for the team lead with 34 strikeouts.
Freshman reliever Francis Brooke, appearing in his fifth game his season, (Northwestern) tossed two and two-thirds innings with three strikeouts. Neither Forer nor Brooke walked one single Mohawk hitter in the nine-inning affair.
Glens Falls stranded just five runners on the diamond, with Amsterdam leaving 10 men on base.
The Mohawks scored runs in the first, seventh, and eight innings. Amsterdam's starting pitcher, freshman Braden Kapteyn (Kentucky) didn't allow a hit until the fourth inning, struck out 10 Golden Eagles, and improved his win-loss record to 4-1 this season. Kapteyn leads the NYCBL with 72 strikeouts this season.
"He’s a big time pitcher," Mayotte said. "He’s a definite future pro prospect and really good competitor."
Despite both teams already clinching home field advantage in the first round of the four-team divisional playoffs, the race for divisional crown heats up heading into the final week of the regular season.
Should Amsterdam and Glens Falls both finish with the same record, the Mohawks would be given the home-field advantage due to them defeating the Golden Eagles in five of eight games this season.
"I’d rather be playing well than get the seed . . ." Mayotte said. "The seeding is good in terms of home field advantage, but I’d rather be playing well."