By: Aidan Joly
As is the seemingly increasing theme with this year’s Saratoga varsity baseball team, another game, another walk-off.
It happened again on Thursday as the Blue Streaks beat the Falcons of Albany at East Side Rec by a final score of 6-5, the team’s third walk-off win in the past five games.
Saratoga went into the bottom of the seventh inning trailing 5-4. The Blue Streaks brought in pinch hitters for their first three batters of the inning and used small ball tactics to get the first run across the plate. A leadoff bunt single from Jake Fauler followed by a stolen base allowed Devin McArthur to bring him the last 180 feet on an RBI single to tie up the game.
Keegan Leffler then bunted to move McArthur up to second, and two batters later, the bases were loaded with one out after an intentional walk to Brian Hart and Kyle Powell reaching first on a dropped third strike. Alex Henderson stepped up to the plate and on the second pitch of the at-bat, sent a long fly ball out to centerfield that just got over the head of Albany’s Andre Torres, easily scoring McArthur and sending Saratoga home happy.
“I was really just trying to jump on an early fastball in the zone,” Henderson said. “Just trying to hit it hard in play. The last thing you want to do is (hit) a weak fly or a ground ball.”
Early on, the game was a thriller with the teams trading runs throughout. Albany took the lead in the first, third, fourth and seventh innings, but Saratoga tied it up in the bottom half of all of those innings and didn’t take the lead until the last play in the game.
“(Albany’s) outfielders made some nice plays defensively that kept them in the ballgame. The nice thing about this team (Saratoga) is they kind of stay complacent and just keep working, and eventually things have worked out for us,” Saratoga head coach Andy Cuthbertson said.
Albany falls to 0-5 on the season following the loss. They will play again on Friday, taking on Guilderland at home. Game time is set for 11 AM.
Saratoga improves to 7-1 on the season. They will also play again on Friday, facing Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake on the road. That game will start at noon. They will return home on Wednesday, the 26th as they take on Averill Park. That game will begin at 4:15 PM.