GUILDERLAND — The team was in a battle on Wednesday afternoon and came away with the victory.

The Dutchmen scored three runs in the bottom of the fifth inning and held off Burnt Hills for a 6-4 win.
"It wasn’t easy," said Guilderland Coach Doug LaValley. "The wind didn’t help us. It almost hurt us."

The usually blustery Fred Field Field was even moreso on Wednesday as gusts blew in from the outfield.

Guilderland held a 1-0 lead after the first inning as Bill Rafferty scored after leading off the inning with a walk.

But Burnt Hills scored four runs in the top half of the third inning to take the lead.

With one out, Billy Wikolski hit a single to the left side of the infield between third base and shortstop. Matt Fish followed with a single to the left side of the infield. After a groundout to Guilderland pitcher Drew Zanotta, Burnt Hills got a single by James Walton that was just over the head of the shortstop but drove in two runs.

Jordan Pennings followed with a hard-hit groundball that was gloved by third baseman Jake Colavito but he couldn’t get a throw off and another run was scored.

Two more singles led to another run but the inning finally ended with a ground out to shortstop Reid Moreland.
"Some of their hits were just in between third and short," LaValley said. "And then they got a flare over shortstop."

Comeback kids

The Dutchmen battled back in the bottom half of the third frame.

Joe Lima led off the inning with a single and then stole second base. After a flyout by Rafferty, Moreland singled to advance Lima to third. However, Moreland was picked off trying to steal second base.

But Ben Henderson’s single drove in Lima and cut the Dutch’s deficit in half.

Colavito followed with a single and Henderson advanced all the way to third base. A wild pitch allowed Henderson to score and make the score 4-3.

Guilderland took the lead in the fifth inning, scoring three runs in the frame.

Rafferty led off the stanza with an infield single, just beating out the throw.

Moreland grounded out to the first baseman but Rafferty moved on to second.

A ground out to short by Henderson kept Rafferty on second. A walk to Colavito put another runner on for the Dutch.

Then, the next Guilderland batter, Andrew Simpson, hit a single to leftfield to drive in Rafferty and tie the game.

Kevin Doherty, who was up next, broke the tie with a triple hit to centerfield that drove in Nick Stark, who was running for Colavito and Simpson.
"He needed it," LaValley said. "We’ve been working on it and he came through."

Doherty’s hit made a winner of Zanotta. Zanotta threw five innings, and was solid except for the third inning.
"He threw 93 pitches," LaValley said. "He did a good job."

Zanotta struck out three batters and worked his way out of trouble in the second and fifth innings to keep the game close.

C.J. Sohl came on in relief for the Dutchmen in the sixth and pitched two scoreless innings. He struck out two batters and did not give up a hit.
"That was a gutsy performance by a sophomore," LaValley said.

But it was the bats that came through when the Dutch needed them to.
"It was just the wind conditions made it hard to score runs." LaValley said. "Not knowing how many runs we would’ve scored, but if the wind was blowing out, we would’ve gotten a lot more."

"A work in progress"

The win was the second of the season for the Dutch and the first against a Suburban Council squad. The Dutch are 2-1 overall and 1-1 in the league.

The Dutch dropped a 10-1 decision to Shenendehowa on Monday.
"Shen is the best team I’ve seen since I’ve been here," LaValley said. "But we were in it. It was just 3-1 in the bottom of the fifth. They are a solid team. We play them again sometime."

The Dutch opened the season with a 10-5 win over Bishop Maginn last Saturday.
"I think we have a pretty good team," LaValley said. "It’s going to come down to pitching. We’ll get better as we go. We threw the ball over the plate against Shen; they just hit it."

The coach has been pleased with what he has seen in the first week of the season and thinks his team will keep improving.
"I like what I am seeing," LaValley said. "We are a work in progress that’s getting better."