Saratoga Tops Rondout in Extras

It took eight innings, but the Saratoga Stampede pulled out a win against the Rondout Royals on Thursday night for their fourth straight win in the 13th Annual Cooper’s Cave Tournament at Saratoga’s East Side Rec.
During the tournament, there is a coin flip to determine the home team. Saratoga lost the flip and was playing as the visiting team on its home field.
Both starting pitchers put on terrific displays of working into, and mostly out of, trouble over the first five innings, as just one run was scored during that time frame.
After a scoreless first inning, the Stampede would pick up the game’s first run in the top of the second.
Scott Hladik drew a walk to lead off the inning, but then Rondout starting pitcher Jackson Quinn got Erich Lange to foul out to catcher Nick Mason, and then he struck out Steve Brennan for the second out.
Ben Cook came up next, and he lined a double to left field, scoring Hladik and giving Saratoga starter Matt Coleman a 1-0 lead.
The Stampede continued to get runners on base over the next few innings, but could not get the clutch hit to bring runners home.
Meanwhile, Coleman breezed through the second inning, walked a pair of batters after striking out the first two in the third, and then got the final out without any damage done.
In the bottom of the fourth, he again got the first two batters out, and then gave up a single to Craig Gilliland. Gilliland went to second on a wild pitch, but then Ryan Layton popped out to Tyler Shattuck at second for the final out.
Saratoga made it a 3-0 ball game in the top of the sixth when Cook drove his second and third runs of the game when he knocked in Justin Wilock on a two-run blast over the left field wall.
The Royals would respond in a big way in the bottom of the inning. Nick Mason led off with a base hit to left field, and then Coleman went to 2-0 on Joe Dennin before he was relieved by Ryan White.
White went on to walk Dennin, and then gave up a three-run shot to left field off of the bat of Freddie Moore, and the game was tied at three. That apparently sparked a competitive fire inside of White, because he went to strike out the next three batters, and then struck out the side in order in the seventh.
The Stampede had been sent down quietly in the top half of the frame, so the game went into the eighth.
Leading off for Saratoga in the top of the eighth inning was Neil Callahan, who was 0-for-1 on the night with a pair of walks. Rondout starter Jackson Quinn had been very careful with Callahan all night, and he hadn’t let Callahan beat him to this point.
But Jackson got cute on the first pitch, trying to sneak the first strike in, and Callahan made him pay, crushing it over the left field wall for a 4-3 lead. Cook singled two batters later for his third hit of the night, but was stranded at first.
White came out to close the game, and if he felt any pressure, it would soon be relieved as Mason led off the inning by grounding out to Wilock at second. Dennin followed with a base hit to right field, and then once again White settled down. He was facing Moore, who had taken him deep just two innings before, but this time White struck him out on four pitches. He then fanned Joe Viviani on three pitches to end the ball game and lift Saratoga’s record to 4-0 in pool play.
Their next game will be on Friday night against Trumbull, Connecticut. Trumbull has looked very impressive so far in the tournament, and most of the team is comprised of scholarship ball players. It shows, because that team can hit from top to bottom in the batting order, and it’s going to take some very good pitching to keep them off of the scoreboard.