AMSTERDAM - A large crowd of 3,251 fans filled Shuttleworth Park to cheer the Amsterdam Mohawks onto an 8-4 victory against the Mohawk Valley DiamondDawgs on Saturday night in a Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League game.
The game was the first of four fireworks nights on the season for the Mohawks.
Amsterdam improved to 2-1 with the win while Mohawk Valley dropped to 1-2.
Amsterdam shortstop Guiseppe Papaccio (Seton Hall) had a pair of RBIs to up his team-leading total to six. 3B Zac Colby (Faulkner, Ala.) had a couple more singles to build on his league-leading batting average. Colby is now 6-for-11 (.545) on the season.
Broadalbin-Perth graduate Matt Gage (Siena) came out of the bullpen to earn the win for the Mohawks. He threw two innings allowing two unearned runs surrendering just one hit and one walk.
Mohawk Valley's Tyler Heck launched a solo home-run to left-center in the fifth for his first hit of the season to get the DiamondDawgs on the board at 1-1. He later added an RBI single in the seventh when they again tied the game at 3-3. Heck finished 3-for-4 with three runs and a steal as well as two RBI.
Amsterdam starter Taylor Martin (Kentucky) threw well in five innings allowing just one run on four hits.
Eddie Fitzpatrick (Brown) went over four innings for Mohawk Valley, giving up three hits and three runs, two earned. The loss was tagged to Aaron Casper (Canisius) who surrendered an unearned run in the seventh.
Amsterdam returns to action Sunday at 4 p.m. on the road at Cooperstown as the Mohawks will complete their suspended game from Wednesday followed by the originally scheduled game at 5 p.m. The Mohawks and Hawkeyes will begin the day's action tied at 2-2 in the 12th inning.
Amsterdam's next home game is Tuesday at 7 p.m. against the Oneonta Outlaws.
They will also play an exhibition game Tuesday morning at 10:30 a.m. on Area School Field Trip Day.
Amsterdam 8, Mohawk Valley 4
Mohawk Valley000 010 201 - 4 8 3
Amsterdam001 020 14x - 8 8 2
WP - Matt Gage; LP - Aaron Casper.