Tuesday, April 21, 2015 by Aidan Joly Photos by Eli Fisher
Saratoga came into week two of the season looking to make an impact to start their home season, and they were able to do just that.
Saratoga got their home season underway Wednesday, playing Averill Park in their 2015 home opener and beating them with a 16-0 win. They continued on Saturday with a 10-3 win over Shaker.
The Blue Streaks started out Wednesday’s game with a bang, scoring six times in the first inning, sending 12 batters to the plate.
“Yeah, that’s always a good opportunity for our pitchers to relax a little bit, understand that we’re going to pitch with the lead.” Blue Streaks head coach Dean Bailey said of his team’s first inning performance.
The Saratoga starting pitcher, Danny Hobbs, picked up right where he left off in 2014, tossing five shutout innings on three hits, one walk and striking out five.
“Danny did a great job today. He understood what the situation was, he pitched to the situation” Bailey said. “And that forced them to put the bat on the ball.”
Hobbs said of his game, “I just felt good out there coming into the game. My location was there, and I thought my velocity was okay. My curveball was really working as an ‘out’ pitch.”
The Streaks were able to score consistently throughout the game, before finally putting the nail in the coffin in the bottom of the sixth, adding five runs to make it 16-0.
Later in the week, Saratoga was back home, this time taking on Shaker.
The game started slow, deadlocked with no runs after three innings. The Blue Streaks had something to say about that, scoring six runs in the bottom of the fourth and sending 10 batters to the plate before eventually winning the game by a score of 10-3.
“We really did a great job offensively in a few innings to give ourselves the lead, held the lead, and Danny (Coleman) battled out there for six innings and did a great job,” Bailey said of his team’s win.
Coleman started the game, and threw six innings, surrendering three runs on four hits, walking four and striking out just one.
“I just had a great team behind me. I let them put the ball in play, and a lot of great plays by them,” said Coleman.
The Blue Streaks were led offensively by outfielder Brendon Frank, who went 4-4 with two runs batted in and a run scored.
“It feels good to be finally hitting the ball” Frank said. “It was a team effort. Everyone getting on base and me hitting the ball was key.”
The Streaks improve to 3-1 on the season with the wins, and will open week three with a home game on Tuesday, playing Mohonasen.
“You can’t take anything for granted, you have to go out the next day, act like the season is just beginning, with a zero and zero record and try to go one and zero that day,” Bailey said of the next week.
Photos below are from Wednesday’s game. Click on any photo for full size.
