BERNE — The rains on Friday afternoon briefly washed away this seasons troubles the Berne-Knox-Westerlo baseball team.

The Bulldogs beat Mayfield, 8-4, in a six-inning game that was played in — sometimes heavy — rains on Friday.

It was the seventh win of the season for BKW in a disappointing season for Coach Jeff Teats.

“It’s been a frustrating season with many different scenarios,” Teats said. “I thought that we’d be as successful as our seniors would allow us to be.”

Critical inning

On Friday, the Bulldogs scored seven runs in the third inning to take the lead in the contest.

BKW took advantage of four Mayfield errors in the frame.

Brandon Galgay led off the inning with a walk and then stole second base. After one out, Jeremy Springer reached first base on an error by the Mayfield shortstop that advanced Galgay to third. Springer then stole second base when the throw from the Mayfield catcher sailed into centerfield. The bad throw allowed Galgay to score and tie the game, 1-1.

Greg Mulson came up next and doubled to left field to let Springer score. Brett Flansburg followed with a double down the right-field foul line. The hit drove in Mulson.

Michael Galgay hit a bloop single to left field, and a throwing error by the shortstop allowed Flansburg to score after he advanced to third on the hit.

Korey Mann followed with a triple that drove in Galgay and gave BKW a 5-0 lead.

Mann scored on a wild pitch later in the inning and Andrew Liddane rounded out the scoring in the frame after reaching first base on an error.

BKW scored another run in the fifth inning.

Liddane scored after he was hit by a pitch, moved to a second on a throwing error by the catcher and advanced to third on a wild pitch. He scored on sacrifice fly by Brandon Galgay.

“Number-one pitcher”

Josh Skinner took the mound for the Bulldogs and gave up just one run until the sixth inning. Skinner gave up hits but struck out nine batters en route to earning the win.

“Josh is obviously our number-one pitcher,” Teats said. “The thing with him is, whether he is having a good or a bad outing, he is always throwing strikes. The pitching staff has been good, but it is the lack of defense that has hurt us.

“Countless times, we’ve had two outs and we could not get that third out and we give up two or three runs. We’d have an error, a walk, and then they would get a key hit. It’s been that way all year long. It’s never changed.”

Looking to the future

The team finished the season with just four seniors — Skinner, Mulson, Springer, and Lance Durham. The rest of the players on the team will be returning.

“They all have had good games and bad games,” Teats said of his players. “Young kids are going to make mistakes with the glove or bat. They’ve seen what it takes to be successful at this level.”

Teats said that he sees good things from the young players as they continue to grow and mature as baseball players.

“That bodes well for the future,” the coach said. “We have a lot of young kids — three freshmen, a sophomore, and juniors. And with the success that the JV had, the kids coming up will be pretty good. The ones remaining in the program are playing in the summer. They invest in the game, and they have for a few years, that will reflect to the success they can have.”

Teats has been surprised with the success that the junior varsity team has had this season.

“They have exceeded expectations,” he said. “We came into the season with the idea that we wouldn’t have a JV team this year. We ended up with 11 kids.”

BKW has a 7-11 record in the Western Athletic Conference and a 7-15 mark overall. The Bulldogs played Duanesburg on Monday to wrap up the league schedule. BKW’s last game will be in Cooperstown against St. Johnsville on Wednesday.

Teats came into the season with high expectations and is disappointed with how the season unfolded and with the fact that the Bulldogs did not qualify for the sectional playoffs.

“I challenged the seniors,” Teats said. “The seniors didn’t step up. They didn’t realize or understand what they needed to do to be successful. They didn’t put it on their shoulders. I don’t know if they understood what I meant by that.”

Teats also realizes that it might just be a bad year and things are looking better in the future.

“It’s just one of those years,” Teats said. “Whether we were ahead or behind or playing well and not playing well, nothing good seems to happen for us, whether it was luck, a call, or a bounce; we struggled this year.

“The kids continued to come back,” Teats said. “Every day they continued to work. We still had some success and that is a tribute to the kids. They put things behind them.”