GUILDERLAND — It was a beautiful opening day for the Guilderland baseball team.

In their first game of the season on Tuesday, the Dutchmen scored seven runs and followed the strong pitching of senior C.J. Sohl to beat Albany, 7-1.

“It’s a good start,” Sohl said after the game. “It’s nice to get out and wear short sleeves.”

“It was a beautiful day to play,” echoed Guilderland Coach Doug LaValley. “We played a pretty nice game especially since it was our opening game of the year.”

Sohl pitched six innings and gave up just three hits and one base on balls. He struck out eight batters in posting the win.

“C.J. was pretty good,” LaValley said. “But he is still not where we need him to be.”

Kyle LeClair pitched a scoreless seventh inning and the game ended on a beautifully turned double play.

With a runner on first, an Albany batter hit a ground ball to Guilderland second baseman Ivan Plata. Plata, who made a couple of nice plays in the inning, flipped the ball to sophomore shortstop Jimmy Quinn who then relayed the ball to first baseman Andrew Simpson to complete the double play and end the game.

“The middle infield is great,” Sohl said. “That was a nice way to end the game.”

“We hit pretty well”

The Dutchmen also swung the bats well in their first contest of the year.

Guilderland scored a run in the first inning, one in the third frame, two in the fourth, two in the fifth, and one in the sixth.

Senior centerfielder Nick Ranalli doubled and scored two runs for the Dutchmen. Junior Matt Roth had two singles and drove in a run.

Catcher Pat Gareau singled and drove in two runs for Guilderland. Simpson singled and scored a run, Josh Lochner singled, and Quinn doubled for the Dutchmen.

“We put the ball in play,” LaValley said. “We cut down on strikeouts. We focus on that in practice. We’ve been working on that.”

“We hit pretty well,” Sohl said. “Jimmy had a few hits. We didn’t reach our goal of eight, but seven runs is good.”

LaValley was pleased with the way his team played in its first contest of the spring.

“We played well all the way around,” the coach said. “It was a total team effort.”

“It was solid all around,” Sohl added. “I don’t think we committed any errors. And our offense was fine.”

Sohl was close; the Dutch had just one error in the game.

Tuesday’s result was one of the many wins the Dutchmen hope to get as they try to defend their Class AA Section II title.

“We are starting to come together a little more,” Sohl said. “This is just the first step. We got the first game down.”