AMSTERDAM - After the Amsterdam Mohawks wasted a scoring opportunity in the bottom of the ninth, Emmanuel Forcier made them pay in the top of the 10th.
Forcier hit a two-run home run off Mohawks reliever Kevin Archbold, giving the Glens Falls Golden Eagles a 4-3 win over the first-place Amsterdam Mohawks.
"He'll take batting practice and will hardly hit the ball that hard," Glens Falls coach John Mayotte said. "That's his third game-winning type home run, and they were launched. He doesn't do that in batting practice. It's one of those mysteries of the game."
Article Photos
The Leader-Herald/Mike Zummo
Mark Leiter Jr. pitches for the Amsterdam Mohawks during the first inning of Friday’s game against the Glens Falls Golden Eagles at Shuttleworth Park in Amsterdam.
The blast gave Glens Falls a 4-2 lead. The Mohawks closed the gap in the 10th inning, but stranded the tying run on first base.
"We executed so poorly it was unbelievable," Mohawks coach Keith Griffin said. "We got none of the signals right. Every time we tried something, one guy had it and the other guy didn't know what we were doing."
With one out in the bottom of the 10th, Giuseppe Papaccio hit a pop-fly that fell into a no-man's land in shallow center field and turned it into a double when both the shortstop and second baseman vacated the base to chase the pop-up.
After D.J. Hoagboon pushed him to third base with a groundout, Papaccio scored when Jeff Limbaugh reached on an error by Glens Falls third baseman Alberto Morales. Then reliever Wes Judish induced a comebacker from DeMarcus Henderson to end the game.
"We played with a lot of passion," Mayotte said. "We played a great team and we had to play great to win the game. I think we did that."
The Golden Eagles got on the board first against Mark Leiter, Jr. who walked Emmanuel Forcier to start the game. The next batter, Danny Brennan drove a triple to center field, giving Glens Falls a 1-0 lead.
From there, Leiter shut the Golden Eagles down, striking out three batters around a two-out walk to Chase Griffin. Leiter went six innings for a no-decision, allowing one hit, hitting two batters and striking out nine.
"The thing I love about Mark is that he's so competitive," Griffin said. "You don't have to worry about Mark. Next time, he'll be just like that. He's so competitive, but he didn't figure into the decision."
The Mohawks tied things up in the third inning, aided by a throwing error by Folk, when he threw a swinging bunt by DeMarcus Henderson past first baseman Ross Kivett for a two-base error. He came home on an RBI double by Ed Charlton, who was playing his first game since tearing his labrum July 2 in Albany.
The Mohawks took a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the seventh when Jeff Limbaugh, who hit a three-run home run Thursday night to lift Amsterdam over the Watertown Wizards, nearly hit his second home run in as many nights, but had to settle for a double off the left-center field fence, chasing Glens Falls starting pitcher Cory Folk.
Limbaugh went to third base on Henderson's sacrifice bunt and scored when Glens Falls catcher Chase Griffin couldn't hang onto an outside pitch from reliever Jordan Keysor to Charlton.
The Golden Eagles tied the game in the eighth inning off Mohawks reliever Scott Heath, who was starting his second inning of work. Forcier singled to left field and then took third on a hit-and-run single by Brennan.
"The left-on-left guys hurt us bad, " Griffin said. "We had two left handers back to back facing lefthanders. They got two hits off Heath left-on-left, and the guy gets the home run off Archbold in that inning. "
After Griffin paid Heath a visit, Kivett slapped a single through the right side of the infield to score Forcier with the tying run.
"He's tough to pitch to because he'll hit the ball the other way and slap the ball around," Mayotte said. "Then once he gets on base, it's an adventure."
Griffin brought in Connor Kaden with runners on first and second and one out, and the right-hander, who recently lost his spot in the starting rotation put the fire out, by inducing a double-play grounder from Alberto Morales to end the inning.
"He got after them and got out of it," Griffin said. "He got the ground-ball double play. We thought we could if we could locate a pitch. We located a pitch and got a 6-4-3 double play. We got some momentum."
The Mohawks (25-7) threatened to take the lead in the bottom of the eighth inning, putting two runners in against Keysor, but Mayotte went for his closer, Jared Cheek, who struck out Limbaugh to end the threat.
"We didn't get the big hit," Griffin said. "It wasn't like we weren't trying. We didn't bunt real well. We didn't steal real well. There were a lot of things we didn't do real well that would help us win the game."
Glens Falls 4, Amsterdam 3, 10 innings
Glens Falls100 000 010 2 - 4 8 3
Amsterdam001 000 100 1 - 3 10 2
Folk, Keysor (7), Cheek (8), Judish (10) and Griffin; Leiter, Heath (7), Kaden (8), Archbold (10) and Colby, Hoagboon (7)