TROY — Heading into the fifth inning with the game tied at two, Shenendehowa’s offense lit up and it guided them to two runs in that frame followed by six more in the sixth to lead them to a 10-3 win over Niskayuna on Thursday night at Joe Bruno Stadium.
Both squads scored twice in the first two innings of the game and the score stayed that way for a while as the starting pitchers, Brendan Disonell for Shen and Tim Schaffer for Niskayuna, shut down the bats of the opposition through the middle innings.
Shen led off the fifth with back-to-back walks from Ben Lavery and Jake Reinisch before Thomas Krill singled to load the bases. The next batter, Cody Carroll, lifted a ball to left field and it was caught. The ball went home and pinch runner Jack Sandberg left third base late so the throw beat him, but the ball popped out of the glove of Niskayuna catcher Robert Schneider, allowing the runner to score and giving Shen the lead. The Plainsmen scored the second run on an error.
Niskayuna went down 1-2-3 in the top of the sixth as Disonell was dominant after the first inning, and that’s when things really went south for the Silver Warriors. Patrick McGuire led off the frame with a single, then Lavery walked, and two batters later Krill doubled into deep centerfield to make it 5-2. After that, Carroll singled to make it 6-2, then pinch hitter CJ Latham put a ball into the right field corner for a two-run triple to make it 8-2. Evan Bean singled to make it 9-2, and Shen got run number 10, their sixth of the inning, to give them an eight-run lead. All in all, Shen had five hits on the inning and sent 11 batters to the plate.
“When you see a pitcher, even in high school, for the second, third, fourth time, it gave our guys an opportunity to kind of zero in on some things. (Schaffer) was getting tired and with our guys seeing him for a third time, fourth time, it played a combination,” Shenendehowa head coach Greg Christodulu said.
Thomas Krill had a big day for Shen at the plate, going 3-4 and had two RBI’s.
“I was just trying to keep it simple. (Assistant) coach (Dan) Cafareli worked with me today at CBA about choking up, so I choked up about half an inch and shortened up my swing and it really helped,” Krill said.
Lost in all of this was Disonell, who after a shaky first two innings, did not allow a hit until the seventh inning, where he did give up a run, as he ended up tossing a 6 1/3 innings for the Plainsmen. In his outing, he walked just three Silver Warrior hitters and struck out five of them.
“Just throw strikes and let my defense make plays, and just trusting my team,” Disonell said.
Niskayuna falls to 11-5 on the season. Their next tilt will be on Saturday at home, taking on Colonie with an 11 a.m. first pitch.
Shen is now 13-4 after picking up another win earlier in the day on the road against CBA. They will also play a home game on Saturday, facing Queensbury at noon.
