(June 11 Game)
By Josh McMullen – Mohawk Valley Diamond Dawgs
LITTLE FALLS, NY – Colin Ruddy (East Hampton, NY/George Washington) was throwing nothing but heat all game for the Mohawk Valley Diamond Dawgs.
Ruddy threw six solid innings for the Diamond Dawgs, throwing eight strikeouts and only allowing three hits. Meanwhile, the Mohawk Valley bats did all their damage in the middle innings, scoring seven of their eight runs in the fourth and fifth, racking up their fifth straight win, 9-0 over the Boonville Lumberjacks.
The Diamond Dawgs got on the board, thanks to a triple deep into the corner of Veterans’ Memorial Park’s right field by Corey Adams (Richmond, VA/William and Mary. Mitchell Balint (Avondale, PA/Carson-Newman) would bring him home on an RBI ground out.
It would stay 1-0 until the fifth, when a ball rocketed to the wall with the bases loaded by Sebastian Muller brought home three runs. The hit would bring home Owen Pincince (North Haven, CT/New Haven), Adams and Balint. Justin Hackett (Wallingford, CT/Bryant) brought Mueller home just two batters later on an RBI triple to the wall in right field.
A pair of errors by Boonville in the seventh helped Pincince extend the Mohawk Valley lead to six in the sixth, on a lazy RBI single to right field. Mark Darakjy (Randolph, NJ/St. Bonaventure) would come home on the play, then Jaden Ross (Tampa, FL/Hudson Valley CC) – the recipient of the second Boonville of the inning – would come home on a sacrifice fly by Adams. Another RBI ground out – this time by Muller – extended the lead to eight and brought home Pincince. The Lumberjacks finished with five errors in the fourth and fifth innings.
Pincince came home again in the eighth, this time on an RBI double by Balint. Then the local closer, Troy Butler (Fort Plain, NY/UNC-Charlotte) closed out a stellar night by Diamond Dawgs pitching by only allowing two walks and forcing a double play to finish off the shutout.
Ruddy got the win for Mohawk Valley (6-2). Albert Bobadilla (Bronx, NY/Bloomfield) got the loss for Boonville (3-5).
The Diamond Dawgs will be back in action on Monday night as they start a three-game road trip at Damaschke Field to take on the Oneonta Outlaws. Boonville will finish off their four-game road trip Monday night when they head to Donovan Stadium to face the Utica Blue Sox.