GUILDERLAND — Brendan Malkowski stood on the mound in the center of the diamond at Joe Bruno Stadium in Troy with a frustrated look on his face.

Malkowski had pitched a tough seven innings for Guilderland but did not get any run support in a 4-3 loss on Friday night to Columbia High School. He only made a couple of mistakes in the game but was a victim of poor hitting and untimely mistakes in the field.

Malkowski gave up a solo home run to Columbia’s Bryan Rose in the third inning with two outs and a single by Brent Weber that scored Kyle Meyer who reached base on an error.

Columbia scored two runs in the fourth inning. A two-out error with the bases loaded led to runs scored by Buddy Czerno and Josh Willimot who both singled in the inning.

"That’s what happens when you don’t make plays," said Guilderland Coach Doug LaValley. "Brendan gave up one earned run."

Malkowski pitched a fabulous game, striking out seven Blue Devil batters. Guilderland had three errors in the contest while Columbia had just one in the contest.

Columbia looked to have a comfortable lead in the seventh inning when Guilderland made things interesting.

Brad Anderson, who came in to pinch hit, singled to lead off the frame. After two strikeouts, Kevin Doherty walked to put runners on first and second.

Then, the next Guilderland batter, Matt LaValley, hit a pitch over the left field wall at Bruno Stadium for a three-run home run to cut the lead to one and got the Guilderland team on its feet in the dugout.

But Bill Rafferty grounded out to end the game and the Dutch went home with a loss, where they got just three hits, two in the final inning, and left five runners on base. Guilderland batters also struck out 10 times in Friday’s contest.

"We’ve been struggling a little bit with the bats," LaValley said. "Hopefully, we’ll work it out be-fore sectionals.

"People forget that they are the defending state champions," LaValley added of Columbia.

Getting ready for sectionals
Guilderland has worked on hitting in practice this week.

"We’ve been swinging the bats well in practice," LaValley said. "It would have been great if Matt’s homerun was a walk-off. It could’ve been if we made a couple of plays."

The loss gave the Dutchmen an 11-9 overall record to conclude the regular season, and an 8-6 mark in the Suburban Council.

The Dutch played in the Suburban Council Tournament this week. They played Shaker on Wednesday. If they won that game, Guilderland would play Monday against the winner of the Colonie-Ballston Spa game. If Guilderland loses, they would play Thursday against the loser of that game. The Dutch also play Queensbury on Saturday.

\The Dutch are now getting ready for the Section II Class AA tournament. They clinched a spot after beating Shaker, 14-1, on April 28.

The Dutch also beat Mohonasen, but, since then, the bats have gone cold. Guilderland lost to Bethlehem, 2-0, last Monday and Saratoga, 2-1, be-fore Friday’s loss to Columbia.

LaValley said playing at Bruno Stadium was a good experience for his team. The sectional finals will be held there later this month.

"It was a good baseball game," LaValley said. "The kids enjoyed it. It was real nice and it was great for them. Hopefully, we’ll get back there because that meant we did well in sectionals."