GUILDERLAND — The Guilderland baseball team might have reached rock bottom.

It doesn’t get much worse than the 16-4 loss the Dutchmen suffered to Columbia on Tuesday afternoon. At least Guilderland Coach Doug LaValley hopes it doesn’t.

“This is the worse loss I’ve had here,” LaValley said after the game. “If we learn something from it and it gets us to where we want to go, I’ll accept it. If we don’t learn from it, than it serves no purpose.”

The Dutchmen were outclassed in all facets of the game on Tuesday. The pitchers could not throw strikes and, when they finally did, the defense made errors. The Dutch swung the bats well, but did not get any breaks.

“You can chalk it up to not having a good day,” LaValley said. “These things happen. It starts with pitching. You can’t walk four guys in two innings and put us on our heels off the rip. We were not helping ourselves.”

A rout

Starter Jason Westervelt struggled with his control in the first two innings and gave up two runs in the first frame and one in the second.

The Dutch had a chance to tie the game in the first inning and had runners on second and third with two outs. Steve Anderson came to the plate and hit a screeching liner that found the glove of Columbia third baseman Tyler Rose.

The Dutch got only three hits in the first five innings and, in the meantime, the Blue Devils swung away and turned the game into a rout.

The Dutch’s Kyle LeClair took the mound to begin the third inning and shut out Columbia in that frame but wasn’t as fortunate after that.

LeClair gave up two runs in the fourth inning and his defense failed him in the fifth inning.

The Blue Devils scored seven runs in the top half of the fifth, swinging the bats and taking advantage of two errors that extended the inning.

Matt Montross’s three-run home run over the left-centerfield fence with two outs was the big blow in the inning.

After that inning, both teams used their bench players. Still Columbia scored four runs in the sixth inning to hold a 16-0 lead.

Guilderland scored three runs in the bottom of the sixth inning and one in the seventh.

Jason Sherwood led off the sixth inning and Josh Lochner earned his way on base with a walk as did Pat Quinn to load the bases.

Chris Murray singled to drive in Sherwood and later in the inning Ivan Plata singled to drive in Lochner. Matt Roth reached first base on a fielder’s choice that allowed Quinn to score.

Lochner scored in the seventh inning. He reached first base on a fielder’s choice and later scored on Murray’s RBI single.

“We have to come together”

“I look at it as we have to find a way to get it done,” LaValley said of the loss. “It’s up to the seniors to get everyone motivated. I’m not sure there are some that want it as much as some other guys.

“We have to figure it out,” he added. “That comes with leadership. They have to find ways to get guys motivated. They have to be willing to give 100 percent effort no matter what the score.”

The loss is the third in five games for the Dutchmen. They lost to Ballston Spa on May 9 and Shenendehowa, 6-2, last Wednesday. The Dutchmen did beat Burnt Hills on May 12 and Queensbury, 8-2, on Saturday.

The Dutchmen close out the regular season at Bethlehem on Thursday and at Amsterdam on Saturday. Guilderland will then wait to see where it will be seeded for the Section II Class AA playoffs on next week.

The Dutch came into Tuesday’s game with a chance to earn a top three seed for the playoffs, but the loss changes things.

“It was a big game,” LaValley said. “I don’t know where we are heading now. We didn’t help ourselves. Maybe we’ll be on the road now; I don’t know. We would have been number three with a win with a shot at being second. But that went by.”

LaValley hopes that Tuesday’s loss is a wake-up call for his team.

“We haven’t put together a complete game all year,” the coach said. “They have to put together a game soon or they’ll have to put one together in the summer. We only have a couple of games left.

“We have the talent to do it,” LaValley added. “We have to come together. It has to be about us.”