LITTLE FALLS, NY – Patrick Stewart once said on “Star Trek: The Next Generation” that “It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not a weakness, that is life.”
If that is the case, then the Boonville Baseball Club learned a very hard life lesson on Thursday night.
Hayden Duke (Mattapoisett, MA/UMass Lowell) had 16 strikeouts on Thursday, and the Mohawk Valley pitching staff as a whole racked up 23 total strikeouts. That would not be the biggest story of the night, though, as Canajoharie native Brady Fureno (Canajoharie, NY/LeMoyne) scored the game-winning runs in the bottom of the ninth to give the Mohawk Valley Diamond Dawgs a 5-4 victory.
Evan Berta (Yorktown Heights, NY/Fairfield) had a double to lead off the game for Mohawk Valley, but his double in the second inning was even better. Berta bounced a ball off the wall in right field to score Ernesto Polanco and Fureno.
The game would stay at 2-0 until the fifth, when Zach Crampton (Haverford) sent an RBI single to left field, managing to score Tim McHugh (St. John’s) from second.
The Baseball Club tied it up in the seventh on an RBI single by AJ Pabst (Davidson). His hard-hit ball to left field scored McHugh again to tie it up. It would be Dan Tauken (Rockland CC) who would give The Baseball Club the lead in the eighth, sending a bouncing ball into center field to score Giovanni Calamia (Mount St. Mary’s).
Boonville would add some insurance in the top of the ninth, thanks to an RBI double by Derrick Yuengling that scored Brady Karp (Bucknell).
It would be the local boy who made good on this night, however, as Fureno brought home the game-winning runs on an RBI single that scored Orlando Pena (New Jersey City, NJ/Coastal Carolina) and Polanco (West New York, NJ/Charleston Southern).
Billy Hoffacker (Erial, NJ/RCSJ Gloucester) got the win for Mohawk Valley (11-11), while Pabst got the loss for Boonville. It’s the seventh straight loss for Boonville (6-12).
The Diamond Dawgs will be back at home on Friday when they will try to avenge Wednesday’s loss to the Auburn Doubledays. The Baseball Club heads back on the road on Friday, traveling north to face the Watertown Rapids.