LITTLE FALLS, NY – What a difference a day makes.
On Monday, the Mohawk Valley Diamond Dawgs and the Boonville Baseball Club combined for 21 runs. 24 hours and five innings later, they had combined for three.
Fortunately, a five-run seventh inning managed to break the tie, and when the dust settled, it was in the Diamond Dawgs’ favor, providing Mohawk Valley with the 5-3 win
Pete Durocher (Emerson, NJ/Manhattan) got things started just three batters in, with a slow roller that advanced Evan Berta (Yorktown Heights, NY/Fairfield) home. They’d get another one on a lazy fly ball to center field. That sacrifice fly by Noah Lucier (Sandown, NH/Fairfield) scored Zach Brush (New York Mills, NY/LeMoyne).
Brady Karp (Bucknell) got Boonville on the board with an RBI bloop single to left field, bringing Jacob Bonzon (Roanoke) home and cutting the Mohawk Valley lead to one. They’d finally tie the game up in the seventh on a passed ball by Mohawk Valley reliever Ohjiro Motoki (Cresskill, NJ/) that scored Dan Tauken (SUNY Albany). A sacrifice fly by Ryan Rifenburg (University of Fort Lauderdale) brought home Scott Seeker and gave Boonville the lead.
That lead would last all of one half-inning, as a laser beam line drive by Marshall Awtry (Hockessin, DE/Goldey-Beacom) that would score Lucier tied the game at 3. But Demetrius Johnson (/Goldey-Beacom) would abruptly grab the lead back, thanks to a ball that was crushed to center field, scoring Awtry and Drew Fureno (Canajoharie, NY/LeMoyne).
That was all reliever Ethan Patch (Whitehall, NY/Carson-Newman) would need, only allowing an eighth-inning walk the rest of the way to close the book on the game. Patch would get the save as well.
Motoki got the win for Mohawk Valley (26-18). Anthony Lapine (SUNY Brockport) got the loss for Boonville (12-28).
Mohawk Valley will head on the road for their final visit to Murnane Field and the Utica Blue Sox on Wednesday. They’ll head back to Veteran’s Memorial Park for their season finale against the same team they started the season with – the Oneonta Outlaws. Boonville will finish up their 2022 campaign at home, the first of three games on Thursday when they host the Watertown Rapids. They’ll end the 2022 season with a doubleheader at Robert Smith Sports Complex when they host the Utica Blue Sox.