The Glens Falls Golden Eagles struck early and often as they defeated the first place Amsterdam Mohawks by a score of 12-4 at East Field. With the win, they soared to just a half a game out of second place in the standings, behind Mohawk Valley who lost tonight against Newark.  Ross Kivett (Kansas State) led the offensive assault for the Golden Eagles, going 5 for 5 at the plate, with a homerun, four runs scored and three runs batted in.

Neil Fryer (Siena) went seven strong innings for the victory, to improve to 1-2 on the season.  Matt Pirro (Wake Forest) took his first loss of the campaign, falling to 4-1.

Glens Falls (21-17) got off to a great start with a perfect first inning, highlighted by a great defensive play by leftfielder Emmanuel Forcier (New Mexico JC), who made a leaping catch up against the fence.  The Golden Eagles then came back with a run in the bottom of the first inning, as Kivett doubled and Morales had an infield single, which resulted in an injury to Amsterdam (29-9) shortstop Chase Green (SIU Edwardsville).  Brian Ruby (Binghamton) came onto replace him, but made an error on his first batter faced, resulting in the first run.

After Fryer had another one-two-three inning, Glens Falls exploded with a second inning rally.  Forcier started things with a one out hit by pitch before a two out rally from Glens Falls.  Back to back to back singles from Casey Rodrigue (LSU Eunice), Danny Brennan (St. Louis) and Kivett plated two runs, before a two RBI double from Alberto Morales (Clarendon) scored two more runs.  All of the damage occurred after Pirro left with an apparent injury, and Dennis Buckley (HVCC) came on in relief.

After a scoreless third from both teams, Amsterdam got on the board, as Giuseppe Papaccio (Seton Hall) doubled to lead off the inning, and he was brought home on an RBI groundout from Ruby.  Glens Falls matched in the bottom of the inning with three runs of their own, on another two out rally.  Brennan walked and Kivett singled, and they both stole a base, to move to third and second respectively.  Morales’ single plated Brennan and Kivett scored on a passed ball.  Chase Griffin (Georgia Southern) drove in the team’s eighth run with an RBI single to score Morales.

An RBI single from DaMarcus Hendersen (Mississippi State) plated Jeff Limbaugh (Parkland) with a single, before Fryer was able to get a double play ball to avoid any further damage.  Glens Falls loaded the bases in the bottom half of the inning, as Kevin Meyers (N.E. Oklahoma A&M) singled, Forcier walked and Anthony Pisani (Southern Maine) singled.  Rodrigue drove in one run with a sacrifice fly, to make the score 9-2, and Kivett plated another on an RBI single.  Glens Falls then made the score 11-2 on an RBI walk from Griffin.

The Golden Eagles scored their twelve and final run of the evening on a homerun to deep left field from Kivett, to complete his perfect evening at the plate.  Amsterdam added on two late runs, on an RBI single from Jeff Boehm, which put the score at its final marker of 12-4.

The Golden Eagles are next in action tomorrow, when they host the Albany Dutchmen for a 7:05 first pitch on Baseball Bingo Night, Part Two.  The team is then on the road on Monday, before getting the evening off on Tuesday for the All-Star Game.  Golden Eagles Jared Cheek (Georgia Southern), Griffin, Kivett, Morales and Mike Vigliarolo (St. Louis) are representing Glens Falls at the game.  The game starts at 7:05 PM at Shuttleworth Park in Amsterdam.