AMSTERDAM, N.Y. - The Albany Dutchmen (4-5) played the longest game by playing time in franchise and PGCBL history defeating the Amsterdam Mohawks (6-2) 6-5 in 15 innings.
The game lasted five hours and 14 minutes which surpassed the previous Dutchmen high of four hours and 55 minutes in the final game of the regular season in 2013 against Glens Falls.
The Dutchmen struck first after a Tommy Pellis (Seton Hill) hit an RBI single in the third. Ian Murphy (St. John’s) started the game on the mound for Albany and went 5.2 innings allowing zero runs on only three hits and had six strikeouts.
“Murphy was phenomenal,” said Dutchmen Head Coach Nick Davey. “He has made adjustments from his last game and looked really good”
In the 6th, Albany’s Parker Noland (Vanderbilt) hit a two-run blast which drove home Pellis and brought the Dutchmen up 3-0. It was the second homer of the season for the Dutchmen and Noland’s first.
“I’ve had to be aggressive early in the count,” said Noland “I got a fastball early in the count and hit it.”
In the top of the 8th inning Aaron Roose (Azuza Pacific) hit an RBI single and in the bottom of the 8th, Amsterdam’s JD Mundy (Radford) hit an RBI double to bring the score back within three.
In the bottom of the 9th, Cash Crane (Trinity) came on to close the game for Albany. Crane walked two, hit a batter and had an error from his defense which propelled Amsterdam to a three-run inning. An error from Noland brought home one, a sacrifice fly from Julio Cortez (South Florida) saw the second run and groundout to second from Michael Turconi (Wake Forest) tied it up at 4-4 and prolonged the game.
“Although we gave them the chance to get back in it, we didn’t stop,” said Coach Davey.
In the top of the 12th inning, the Dutchmen had the first runner in scoring position in extras. Will Duff (Vanderbilt) doubled to begin the inning but was stranded at 3rd after a strikeout and lineout that ended the inning.
In the bottom of the 13th, the Mohawks were 90 feet away from victory. After a walk, a sacrifice bunt attempt saw Albany Pitcher Brandon Roberts (St. John Fisher) throw a ball wide of first basemen Connor McCaffery (Iowa) which put two runners in scoring position. After an intentional walk, Roberts battled with no outs and the bases loaded and struck out two to end the inning. Roberts struck out four through three innings.
In the 15th inning after Chris Seng (Louisville) singled, stole second, and Tommy Pellis reached on an error, Noland came up big again hitting a two-run double to left center. It put the Dutchmen up 6-4. In the bottom half of the 15th with the time eclipsing 5 hours, Luke Walter (Manhattan) allowed a Mitch Hartigan (Florida Atlantic) homer to start the inning. After allowing a double to Cortez he settled down an got a strikeout and two ground outs the last one being to Duff to end the game.
“Although we have plenty of baseball coming up hopefully, we can use tonight and let it roll over for tomorrow,” said Coach Davey
Albany’s next game is against the Utica Blue Sox which will be a doubleheader on Friday, June 14th at Murnane Field. The first game starts at 5:00 p.m. The Dutchmen’s next home game is a doubleheader as well against the Oneonta Outlaws on June 15th. The first game starts at 3:00 p.m. For tickets and more information, visit dutchmenbaseball.com.
