The Shaker baseball team may be young, but it’s a dangerous young team.
The Blue Bison improved their league record to 5-2 (5-4 overall) with Saturday’s 6-5 victory over Guilderland considered to be one of the top teams in the league by many Suburban Council coaches in the preseason.
They have a really good ball-club,` said Shaker coach Pete Mralvja. `I can see why they were 6-0 coming in.`
The Dutchmen led 4-0 before Shaker rallied for four runs in the top of the fifth inning. The Blue Bison then took a 5-4 lead with a run in the top of the sixth, but Guilderland tied the game with a run of its own in the bottom half of the inning.
Tom Kahnle jump started Shaker’s offense in the top of the seventh inning with a triple. Guilderland nearly worked out of the jam, but Tom McDonald laced a two-out single to drive in Kahnle with the winning run.
`It seemed like they caught all the breaks early … and then we caught all the breaks late,` said Mravlja. `The kids played hard the entire game.`
Shaker pitcher Mike Petilli shook off Guilderland’s early run production to toss five strong innings before turning things over to Kahnle, who allowed one run in the final two innings.
`We told Mike to be confident out there, and he was. He did a very good job of working out of jams,` said Mravlja of Petilli, one of several sophomores on this year’s roster.
The Blue Bison looked to continue their recent stretch of good games Monday when they played Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake.
`I think they are starting to understand. They set some lofty goals at the beginning of the season, and we talked about what it would take to reach those goals,` said Mralvja. `I think if they maintain their focus, they have the potential to do some great things.`
In other weekend baseball action, Colonie suffered a 5-2 Suburban Council loss to Columbia Friday, while Christian Brothers Academy defeated Amsterdam and Troy in a pair of Big 10 games.
Colonie and Columbia dueled through three scoreless innings before the Blue Devils struck for four runs in the bottom of the fourth on Nick Burek’s grand slam. The Garnet Raiders scored a run in the top of the fifth, but never got closer than three runs the rest of the way.
Matt June had two hits for Colonie, which was coming off a 7-1 victory over Shenendehowa one day earlier.
CBA needed 11 innings to defeat Amsterdam 2-1 Friday. The Brothers tied the game in the bottom of the fourth inning, but they didn’t push another run across until Greg Holle singled Brad Medici home in the bottom of the 11th.
A short turnaround didn’t bother CBA, as it defeated Troy 4-1 Saturday. The Brothers scored all of their runs in the top of the fifth inning, two of which came on Medici’s single. Holle drove in the other two runs of the inning.“