LOCAL BASEBALL: Hometown arm locks down win and division lead for Mohawks (2024)

AMSTERDAM, N.Y. — Manny Santos still remembers the day he fell in love with the Amsterdam Mohawks baseball team. Santos moved to the Capital Region from the Dominican Republic, and his new, fifth-grade class was taking a field trip to see the local team play at Rao Family Stadium, in Shuttleworth Park.

Flash forward seven years, and Santos, an Albany Academy graduate, is closing out games for the Mohawks in the heat of the summer and a division title race. According to Santos, the experience is living up to those early expectations.

“I’ve been coming to these games since I was about 10 years old and it feels amazing now for me to grow up and finally play for them,” Santos said.

“It definitely has met those expectations, especially Coach [manager Keith Griffin] ‘Griff.’ He knows a lot. He knows a lot of baseball,” he added. I always, throughout middle school and high school, I looked up to him and picked his brain at like camps are something and it has definitely lived up to the dream.”

On Wednesday night, Santos fired the final two innings of relief, while his offense caught fire in the eighth inning, as the Mohawks doubled up the Saugerties Stallions, 6-3.

Entering the game, the Stallions and Mohawks were tied atop the Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League’s East Division, each with a record of 15-3. Santos, a little more than one month ago was helping his high school varsity team, the Cadets, take home the Section 2 Class A championship. The soon-to-be University of Rhode Island freshman is no stranger to high-pressure situations.

“I’d always dreamed about this and that’s why I transferred to Albany Academy – to win the Sectional Championship – and then come back here and play feels amazing,” Santos said, postgame on Wednesday. “I’ve always been a relief pitcher and I’ve always come in, in tough situations. So, it’s always been like a normal thing, but it’s different here and I just didn’t let anything get to me.

“Deep breaths, every single time,” he continued, “I took a deep breath, stayed composed, and trusted my teammates.”

It was a pitcher’s duel for most of the way on Wednesday, with each starter yielding one run on three hits, leaving the game tied heading into the fifth inning. In the bottom of the fifth, Mohawks’ Evan Haeger (Alabama) broke the 1-1 tie with an RBI-double, scoring Rob Rispoli (UConn).

Mohawks’ pitcher Ben Huckans (St. John Fisher), another Amsterdam native and graduate from Christian Brothers Academy, entered in relief of starter Justus Agosto (North Alabama) and shoved a scoreless fourth and fifth inning, striking out one and stranding two.

Trailing 2-1, Saugerties brought across a run in the top of the sixth and eighth innings, to flip the advantage in their favor. The top of the eighth was started by a go-ahead, no-doubt home run from Stallions’ Mario Trivella (Florida), followed by an error at first base, forcing Mohawks’ manager to pull Duanesburg native Konnor Keplinger, after his two innings of relief.

In came Santos, inheriting the runner on first but it didn’t immediately get much better, as the local righty surrendered a double into the left field corner. With runners on second and third, Santos got back-to-back swinging strikeouts, and a weak fly-out to centerfield to end the inning.

“I felt great. I haven’t thrown in probably like a week-and-a-half and just coming in, trusting myself to be able to get guys out, felt amazing,” Santos said.

Overall, the Mohawks stranded 10 Stallions’ runners.

“We just don’t fold under pressure. We know we have the guys that we need,” Santos said. “We have SEC, ACC, guys that have been there before and we know that we can battle and come back. So, we just don’t let that get to our heads and fall down.”

In the bottom of the eighth, Amsterdam jumped on the new arm, Saugerties’ Jackson Coen (Wofford), starting with a pair of singles, from Haeger and Jackson Natili (Houston). Cade Ladehoff (NJIT) ripped a two-run double into left field and gave Amsterdam a 4-3 lead.

The bleeding didn’t stop there for the Stallions as Columbia graduate Zach Eldred (Brockport) posted a fourth-straight hit in the inning, setting up runners on the corners for an eventual wild pitch in the next at-bat. One last single in the inning from Mohawks’ Drake DiGiorno brought Eldred around to score, for the winning, 6-3 advantage.

“They attacked him. They didn’t let him attack them,” Santos said of the Mohawks’ offense. “That’s just what good teams, good hitters do. That’s what we did tonight.”

In the top of the ninth, Santos avoided further jams with another two strikeouts, plus a groundout to third base.

Amsterdam not only took a one-game lead ahead of Saugerties for first place in the division, at 16-3 on the season but also moved one game closer to win No. 1,000 as a franchise (993). For Santos, who grew up watching the climb to the historic milestone, having the chance to be a part of it takes the experience this season to a whole new level.

“It would mean, a lot. I mean, it’s program history and just to say that I was on that team, would mean a lot. To me, that’s awesome.”

Amsterdam next hosts the Glens Falls Dragons (3-12) on Saturday, June 29, at 6:35 p.m. Saugerties (15-4) heads to Glens Falls on Friday for its next matchup, with first pitch at East Field slated for 7 p.m.

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Amsterdam 6, Saugerties 3

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AM;000;110;04x;— ;6;12;2

Stallions- Hot 2B, R, 2BB; Ford 2B; Trivella HR, R, RBI, 1B; Cuello RBI; Amato 1B, R, BB; Manley 1B, 1B; Blackmore 1B, BB; Recio 1B, BB. PITCHING: Petit 3.1, R, 3H, BB, 5K; Keefe 1.1, R, H, 3BB, 3K; Michalak 1.1, 2H, K; Constance 1.0, H; Coen (L, 0-1) 1.0, 4R, 5H, K.

Mohawks- Williams BB; Haeger 2B, 1B, R RBI; Natili 1B, 1B, 1B, 2R; Ladehoff 2B, 1B, 1B, 2RBI, R; Eldred 1B, 1B, R; Daniel BB; Stewart BB; DiGiorno 1B, RBI; Rispoli 1B, R, BB. PITCHING: Agosto 3.0, R, 3H, 3BB, K; Huckans 2.0, 2H, K; Fall 0.0, R, H, 2BB; Keplinger 2.0, R, 2H, 2K; Santos (W, 1-0) 2.0, H, 4K.