Saratoga holds on to early lead to beat Queensbury

An early onslaught of runs was more than enough for Saratoga to win their second game of the season on Saturday afternoon against Queensbury at East Side Rec by a final score of 11-6.

Saratoga jumped out to an early 6-0 lead after a first inning that featured key hits from Kyle Powell and Niko Concha at the bottom of the order as Queensbury starting pitcher Ben Sphur struggled to find the zone, walking a batter and hitting two more in the first inning alone. The Blue Streaks would score two more runs in the second in similar fashion, this time with key hits from Brian Hart and Nate Chudy, to give the Blue Streaks a comfortable lead early.

“I keep talking about getting the momentum first, having a good first inning and building off that. The kids did a good job hitting and taking quality at-bats,” Saratoga head coach Andy Cuthbertson said.

On the other side of the ball, Saratoga starting pitcher Zach Vavasour kept the Spartan bats quiet for the first three innings, not allowing a run and giving up only one hit. This gave way to Alex Henderson, Cam Flemming, Ryan Seales and Brian Hart, who each threw one inning on the mound. Saratoga has been excited about having a lot of depth in their pitching, as they have 13 pitchers on their roster which is the most in the Suburban Council.

“With that many arms, keeping guys fresh, it’s a good thing to have in your back pocket,” Cuthbertson added.

Queensbury would slowly try to creep back into the game in the middle innings but were only able to bring their deficit to 8-4 before Saratoga tacked on three more runs in their last two at-bats to make it 11-4 at the end of six innings as Concha came up big once again with his second two-run double of the afternoon, finishing his varsity debut 2-4 with four RBIs.

This game was originally supposed to be played on Thursday but was moved to Saturday due to rain.
Queensbury falls to 0-2 on the season after the loss. They will play again on Monday as they take on Scotia-Glenville on the road at 4:30 PM.

Saratoga improves to 2-0 on the season. They will also play again on Monday, on the road against Colonie, before returning home on Wednesday to take on Columbia in their league opener. Both of those games will start at 4:15 PM.