GOLDEN EAGLES OVERCOME FOUR-RUN DEFICIT TO WIN IN EXTRA INNINGS

Seth DeWitt

Glens Falls Golden Eagles

July 13, 2011

Glens Falls, NY-In the longest game of the season at East Field on the 2011 season, David Olsen’s sacrifice fly RBI in the bottom of the eleventh led the Golden Eagles to an 11-10 victory on Wednesday night. Each Golden Eagles player reached base and had a hit in the game.

Reliever/Utility man Kyle Ruchim picked up his second win of the season. Ruchim went two and one-third innings giving up one hit and striking out three of the eight batters he faced while Wizards reliever Tim Sylvester fell to (0-3) on the season.

Golden Eagles Head Coach John Mayotte picked up his 199^th win as coach of the team and will look for win #200 Thursday night against the same Watertown Wizards.

Anthony Pisani led off the bottom of the eleventh with a walk. He then advanced to third an error to Wizards reliever Tim Sylvester with outfielder Clayton Brown reaching first base. Kyle Ruchim was intentionally walked to load the bases. Right fielder Ricky Claudio struck out for the first out of the inning and then David Olsen lined a 2-2 count to center field, driving Pisani home for the winning run.

Golden Eagles starter Derek Mazzio (St. Louis) went four and two-thirds giving up seven hits, eight runs (two earned), two walks and four strikeouts while Wizards starter Anthony Buonopane (Furman) went four innings allowing five hits, four runs, walking six and striking out three.

Alex Maldonado (Holy Cross) led off the game with a single and then scored on a Larry Balkwill (Siena) RBI-double down the left field line to give the Wizards a 1-0 lead.

The Golden Eagles responded with a four-run bottom half of the inning. Center fielder Clayton Brown (Tacoma C.C) led-off the inning with a double into right center. Kyle Ruchim (Northwestern) and David Olsen (Tacoma C.C) each walked. Then with one-out, first baseman Zac Hawkins (LSU-Eunice) lined a two-RBI double into left center to give Glens Falls a 2-1 lead. The Golden Eagles extended their lead to 4-1 as Olsen and Hawkins scored on the two-RBI single by the left fielder, Mike Kindel (Kansas State).    

Wizards third baseman Jake McGuiggan (Harvard) cut the Golden Eagles lead to 4-3 as he scored in the second and fourth inning on throwing errors to Glens Falls catcher Dan Klein (Kansas State) and third baseman John Rooney (Siena).

Watertown regained the lead in the top of the fifth inning. Kaleb Barlow (Chipola) led off the inning with single to center and later scored on the one-out fielder’s choice by Kevin Whitehead (Canisius) to tie the game at 4-4. Patrick Puentes (Holy Cross) scored on the Anthony Pisani two-out throwing error and then Chris Gruarin (Canisius) hit a three-run homer to extend the Watertown lead to 8-4.

Dan Klein cut the Wizards lead to 8-6 in the bottom of the fifth inning as he drove a two-out, two-RBI double to center field scoring David Olsen and Mike Kindel.

Watertown extended their lead to 10-6 in the sixth before Glens Falls  the Golden Eagles stormed back with a four-run bottom of the eighth inning. Ricky Claudio (St. Thomas) and David Olsen got one-out singles with Hawkins then reaching on a walk. Claudio scored on the Austin Southall wild pitch to cut the Wizards lead to 10-7. Mike Kindel picked up his fifth RBI of the game as he doubled two home to get the Golden Eagles within one at 10-9. home Olsen and Hawkins. John Rooney picked up his first hit of the night lining the Southall pitch back up the middle to tie the game at 10-10.

The game remained tied until the Golden Eagles eleventh inning heroics.

Glens Falls will take on the Watertown Wizards in the second game of their back-to-back games at East Field on Thursday night. It will be our annual Baseball Card Giveaway. The first 250 fans in attendance at East Field will receive team a set of 2011 Golden Eagles baseball cards.

For more information on the 2011 PGCBL All Star Game, please visit the league website at http://www.pgcbl.com. To learn more about the Golden Eagles, please follow the team on Facebook and Twitter and visit the team website at http://www.glensfallsgoldeneagles.com.

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