ONEONTA, N.Y. – The Albany Dutchmen (22-15) fell to the Oneonta Outlaws (15-26) 8-1 on Thursday night. The Dutchmen never led throughout the contest.
The Outlaws struck early to take control of the game. Baylin Moore (Georgia College) opened the scoring with a two-run double in the first inning. Cavan Tully (Binghamton) added to the Oneonta lead with a single that brought Moore home. The Outlaws exited the first inning with a 3-0 advantage.
Albany responded with a run in the third, but Oneonta shut down the Dutchmen offense for the rest of the game. The lone Dutchmen run came off the batt of Parker Noland (Vanderbilt), who hit an RBI single. However, the combined pitching efforts of Josh Hudgins (Georgia College) and Devin Lewis (SUNY Cobleskill) kept Albany’s offense in check. The two pitchers only allowed five Albany hits and struck out 11 batters.
Oneonta added to its lead in the fourth inning. Two runs came from a Bowen Plagge (St. Mary’s College of Maryland) triple and a Hite Merrifield (Wake Forest) sacrifice fly. All runs in the first four innings came off Dutchmen starter Billy Price (Virginia), who struggled in comparison to recent starts. The lefty had allowed six combined runs in his previous two appearances, totaling 10.2 innings. On Thursday, Price allowed six runs on four hits and four walks.
“He didn’t have his best stuff,” said Dutchmen Head Nick Davey. “He’ll be better next time out.”
The sixth run allowed by Price also came in the fourth inning on a series of errors. Giordan Cerbo (Grand Canyon) walked after Merrifield’s sacrifice fly to put himself on first base. With the next batter at the plate, Cerbo took off for second. Errors by Ben Metzinger (Louisville) and Luke Franzoni (Xavier) brought Cerbo all the way home to give Oneota a 6-1 lead after four innings. Albany recorded four errors on the evening.
“We didn’t play clean baseball tonight,” said Davey. “Hopefully we come out tomorrow night and play a little better.”
Two more runs from the Outlaws in the sixth completed the scoring. Dutchmen reliever Ryan Greco (Brockport) walked Ben Bianco (Louisville) with the bases loaded to bring home Oneonta’s seventh run. He allowed the eighth to score on a Moore sacrifice fly.
The Dutchmen now move to 2-3 on the season against the Outlaws. The home team has won every matchup between the two rosters.
Albany qualified for the PGCBL playoffs on Wednesday night after Oneonta lost to the Glens Falls Dragons. The Dutchmen are still battling for seeding in the PGCBL East Division and are three games behind the Mohawk Valley DiamondDawgs for second place. The Saugerties Stallions can still overtake the Dutchmen for third place, as Albany only holds a two-game lead over the Stallions.
The next Dutchmen game is a doubleheader on Friday, July 26th against the Glens Falls Dragons, with game one scheduled as a continuation of a suspended game due to rain from July 20th. First pitch is set for 6:00 p.m. The next Dutchmen home game is a doubleheader against the Oneonta Outlaws on Saturday, July 27th, with first pitch set for 3:00 p.m. For tickets and more information, visit dutchmenbaseball.com.
