Sunday, May 24, 2015 by Aidan Joly
In a close game, the Blue Streaks did what they do, and that’s score runs late in the game.
The Saratoga Blue Streaks defeated La Salle on Thursday night at East Side Rec in the Class AA quarterfinals. They won by a score of 10-3 behind high-octane offense and a dominating game from Danny Coleman on both sides of the ball.
La Salle jumped out to the first lead in the top of the third inning, but Saratoga answered in the bottom half of the inning with a two-run double from Coleman, giving them a 2-1 lead.
“You can’t score runs without guys getting on base and getting them in,” Coleman said.
After Saratoga added two more runs in the bottom half of the fourth, La Salle came roaring back, matching with two runs of their own in the top half of the fifth. After that, the score was 4-3 Blue Streaks.
Coming up with the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the fourth inning, Jake Fauler hit a ball into the gap and stopped at second base, for a bases-clearing, three-run double to give Saratoga a 6-3 lead. He ended up going 4-4 in the contest.
“It was a good hit. [We] came back the next inning to break through for 10 runs,” Fauler said.
After Fauler’s double, the Streaks never looked back, adding a run in the bottom of the fifth four more in the sixth for a total of 10 runs in the game.
“That’s how we’ve been playing all year. The bottom line for us is to get guys on, run a little bit, bunt a little bit, and get a hit in clutch situations,” Saratoga head coach Richard Lofink said of his team’s offense. “It’s good when we score 10 runs, and that’s how we did it.”
Danny Coleman was the starting pitcher and ended up being the only pitcher for Saratoga, with three runs on three hits, all in the fifth inning. He also walked one and struck out five on 104 pitches.
Coleman said, “I had a great defense behind me. We just have a lot of confidence in each other, and we all go out there with the same mentality.”
After this win, Saratoga moved on to play Guilderland in the Class AA semifinals on Saturday. That game was at 4 p.m, and took place at Joe Bruno Stadium in Troy. Look for an article on the semifinals coming soon, or check out our Twitter feed for an archive of live coverage from the game.