The Mohawks used half a dozen homeruns in Cooperstown on Wednesday as they glided to a 16-1 thrashing of the Hawkeyes at Doubleday Field.
Collin Blankenship (South Alabama) made his third start against Amsterdam this season and faced just one batter over the minimum through the first three innings. However, once the Hawks lineup turned over to start the fourth, the roof caved in on the right handed freshman.
Jude Vidrine (Lamar) sneered at the All-Star voters who left the Texan off of the team as he continued his eye-opening summer with two more homeruns and now has five round trippers this summer.
After Demarcus Henderson (Mississippi State) led off the top of the fourth with his first homer of the summer, Vidrine hammered the next pitch over the leftfield fence to put the Mohawks up 2-0. The Hawks would get three more runs in the inning on RBIs from Kody Ortman (Auburn), Josh Alexander (Utah), and Zach Shank (Marist) to jump in front by five.
Parker Morin (Utah) connected with Amsterdam’s third big fly when he tagged a two-run blast into the bleachers in right-center to extend the lead to 7-0.
Vidrine came up once more to lead off the seventh against left hander Jacob Cadle and this time he yanked a solo shot beyond the deepest part of the ballpark in right-center. Luke Maile (Kentucky) followed up with his second homerun in as many nights and the Hawks had their second pair of back-to-back homeruns in the game.
Still in the seventh, Morin singled, Ortman cracked his second double of the game and they both came around to score, along with Alexander, to make it 12-0.
Josh Nethaway (Albany) tacked on the exclamation point when he blasted a grand slam past dead centerfield in the eighth inning to make the score 16-1. The long ball was Netheway’s first of the summer and the RBIs raised his total to a team-high 18.
Lost amid the offensive fireworks was the dominant pitching performance turned in by Jimmy Dykstra (LSU), the best statistical outing for any Mohawk starter this summer. Dykstra allowed two base-runners in the bottom of the first inning but stranded them both in scoring position before he put the choke-hold on the Cooperstown bats.
Beginning with a 1-6-3 double play that ended the third, Dykstra retired 12 consecutive Hawkeye batters. He tossed seven shutout innings and struck out five as the Californian eased to his second win this summer.
The triumph keeps Amsterdam (19-12) atop the Eastern Division standings and Cooperstown drops to 14-12.
The Mohawks are back at home on Thursday night as they welcome the Elmira Pioneers to Shuttleworth Park for a 7:00 first pitch.