Eagles Explode in Eighth to Earn Seventh Win

Glens Falls Golden Eagles

June 21, 2011

Andrew Nadler

Glens Falls, NY – On a beautiful evening for baseball at Glens Falls’ East Field, the Golden Eagles defeated the Cooperstown Hawkeyes 5-1 after a four-run eighth inning followed an impressive pitchers’ duel between Glens Falls’ Derek Mazzio (St. Louis) and Cooperstown’s Collin Blankenship (South Alabama) Tuesday evening in front the 1,100 in attendance for Glens Falls Hospital Night.

The scoring opened in the home half of the second as C Kevin Alexander (Dallas Baptist) hit his first homerun of the season to give Glens Falls a 1-0 lead off Blankenship.

The Golden Eagles’ lead would not last though into the third as Cooperstown’s DH Danny Nelson (Cal State Monterey Bay) hit a hard two-out RBI single to center to score 3B Bryan Aanavrd (Cypress College) who had reached on a single.

Mazzio would continue to hold the Hawkeyes to a single run leaving in the seventh inning after compiling seven strikeouts while only yielding one walk and three hits.

Entering the eighth inning, Cooperstown began to rally with two outs off Golden Eagles’ reliever Kevin Cowan (Albany). RF Coleman Barron (Davidson) ignited the start of the rally after being hit by the pitch of Cowan. Nelson hit a single to put runners on first and second. A passed ball from Cowan advanced both runners to second and third with 2B Ben Miller (Shippensburg) walking to load the bases. However, the rally would fall just short as SS Tynan Pedretti (Merced College) flew out to Kyle Ruchim (Northwestern) in center.

Following Cooperstown’s attempted rally, Glens Falls opened the scoring and scored what would be the deciding runs in the bottom of the eighth inning. SS Anthony Pisani (Southern Maine) reached after being hit by a pitch from Blankenship with LF John Rooney (Siena) reaching on a walk to put runners on first and second. Pisani then scored on a throwing error as both runners were attempting to steal. Glens Falls’ 2B Roger Bernal (Texas Pan America) hit an RBI double to score Rooney putting the Golden Eagles ahead 3-1. 3B Josh Anderson (Yavapai) capped off the scoring for the evening as he hit a two-run homer to put the Golden Eagles ahead 5-1.

Glens Falls’ Ruchim moved in from center to close out the game while striking out two. Cowan earned his first win of the season while Blakenship took the loss for the Hawkeyes.

The Golden Eagles improve to 7-2 on the season, undefeated at home (6-0), while the Hawkeyes drop to 3-5.

Wednesday, the Hawkeyes return to Doubleday Field to host Mohawk Valley at 5pm. The Golden Eagles will be travelling to Watertown on Wednesday at 7pm.

For more information on the Cooperstown Hawkeyes and the Glens Falls Golden Eagles of the PGCBL, please visit the team Twitter and Facebook pages as well as the team websites at http://www.cooperstownhawkeyes.net and http://www.glensfallsgoldeneagles.com.

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