Rare win in Amsterdam keeps DiamondDawgs on top of East Division

By TIMES STAFF REPORTS

AMSTERDAM, N.Y. — Wins against the Amsterdam Mohawks have been hard to come by for the Mohawk Valley DiamondDawgs. Friday’s ended a long Amsterdam winning streak and kept the DiamondDawgs in first place in the East Division of the Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League.
The 5-2 win was just Mohawk Valley’s second in nine games against the Mohawks and sixth in 29 dating back to the 2011 season.
Amsterdam took the first lead Friday, scoring two runs on a Jake Salpietro’s double in the fourth inning. Salpietro had also singled in the first but Mohawk Brendan Tracy was thrown out at the plate by Jayson Sullivan to end the inning.
Mohawk Valley threw another runner out trying to score in the fifth. Third baseman Greg Fazio threw home on Thomas Kane’s grounder and cut down Marcus Carson with one out and runners at second and third.
Those outs kept Mohawk Valley close until Zane Smith tied the game with his two-run home run to right field in the top of the sixth inning. Colin Hawk reached base on one of the Mohawks’ four errors leading off the inning. Connor Johnstone struck Zach Collett out before Smith, the Ilion native from Bryant University got the DiamondDawgs even.
Hawk singled in the seventh inning and drove Fazio home for the go-ahead run. Fazio had singled, stolen second base and moved to third on an overthrow. The DiamondDawgs tacked on two runs in the eighth inning, one on another error and the other on Eric Strano’s sacrifice fly.
The DiamondDawgs’ defense turned a double play to end the sixth inning behind Nick Petrella and Sullivan threw Jack Czeszewski out trying to stretch a leadoff single in the seventh. Petrella retired the final eight Amsterdam batters and recorded Mohawk Valley’s first nine-inning complete game of the season.
Petrella allowed eight hits while striking out three batters and walking none.
Hawk, Smith and Gus Craig all had two hits for Mohawk Valley and Smith scored two runs. Collett was on base three times with a hit and two walks.
Josh Gardiner, the PGCBL’s leading hitter, and Joe Purritano each had two hits in addition to Salpietro.
The DiamondDawgs had last won at Shuttleworth Park June 11, 2013, in the teams’ first meeting last season. The Mohawks swept a June 16 doubleheader, coming from behind to win 2-1 and 6-2 at Veterans Memorial Park, when the teams met for the first time this season. Amsterdam trailed 1-0 after six innings in the first game and 2-0 after five in the second; the wins were the second and third of 10 in a row, a streak that ended Friday.
Now two games up in the division, the DiamondDawgs are on the road again Saturday for a game against the Watertown Rams. They return to the field in Little Falls Sunday for a 5:05 p.m. game against Utica’s Brewers.