H.S. BASEBALL: Ichabod Crane earns Section II title

Brady Holzhauer battled through seven innings to get the win for the Riders and Connor Trudeau shouldered the loss for the Tigers. Jack Mullins entered the game in the seventh and got the final three outs, earning a save for Ichabod Crane.

Brady Holzhauer started on the mound in the top of the first and gave up a leadoff single to right by Cohoes’ Jedadiah Trudeau. Then he struck out Nick Chicaway for out number one and surrendered another base hit, this time to Connor Trudeau.

Charlie Gendron got to the plate and sent a ground ball to third base. Ichabod Crane’s Wyatt Dolge made a great backhanded stop near the line, stepped on the bag and fired across the diamond to first for a double play and Holzhauer was out of trouble.

Jack Mullins led off the bottom half for the Riders, and he reached on a dropped third strike after the throw by the catcher was high and the first baseman had to jump to reach it and came off the bag. Then Holzhauer worked a walk and Mullins stole third base on ball four after stealing second earlier.

Mullins scored from third on a snap throw by the catcher that skipped away, and Holzhauer moved to third after stealing second on the play. Nate Garafalo stepped in and drove in Holzhauer with a sac fly to right field, pushing the Riders’ lead to 2-0.

Nick Sparzo and Lukasz Smith started off the top of the third with back-to-back base hits for Cohoes. Jedadiah Trudeau came back up and lined a fly ball to Alex Schmidt in center field. Schmidt read it well and made the grab, throwing immediately to the bag at second to double off Sparzo who was too close to third to get back.

Holzhauer struck out Chicaway on a curveball below the zone for out number three and Ichabod Crane was back at the dish. Dominic Pelizza led off the Riders’ third with a fly ball to right that bounced off the outfielder’s glove, allowing Pelizza to coast into second base. Then Mullins grounded a ball down the line past third to drive in Pelizza, and advanced to second when the ball rolled past the left fielder and the Riders led 3-0.

After taking third on a botched pickoff throw to second skipped into center field, Mullins came around to score on a wild ball four to Garafalo and the lead was 4-0.

Cohoes had runners on the corners with one away in the top of the top of the fifth, and Smith got them on the board with an RBI groundout to cut the lead to 4-1. Jedadiah Trudeau delivered a swinging bunt, on which no play could be made, and another run scored to make it 4-2. The Tigers cut the lead down to one run thanks to an RBI single from Chicaway and the Riders were clinging to a 4-3 lead.

Garafalo worked a one out walk in the bottom half of the fifth, and Kyle Bartlett slapped a single to center that moved Garafalo to third on a hit and run play. Wyatt Dolge came up with two outs and came through with a two-run base hit to shallow left field, giving Ichabod Crane some breathing room, now up 6-3.

Cohoes added one in the top of the sixth thanks to an RBI single from Chris Cipollo and they were down by just two to Ichabod Crane 6-4. Chicaway entered the game in a relief appearance for the Tigers in the bottom half, and he struck out the side to prevent the Riders from accruing any insurance runs.

Holzhauer took to the mound in the top half of the seventh to try and finish the job, but after a single and a hit by pitch, coach Brian McComb pulled him and called on Jack Mullins to close out the game.

Mullins got the first hitter to fly out to center field and the runners stayed put on first and second. Then Connor Trudeau came up with the tying runs on base and only one out, and hit a ground ball to third. Dolge seized yet another opportunity at two, stepping on the bag and slinging it across to first for a game-ending double play.

A year after dropping the title game 1-0 to Schuylerville, the Ichabod Crane Riders defeated the Cohoes Tigers 6-4 to win the Section 2 Class B Championship and move on to the state tournament next week.

Ichabod Crane coach Brian McComb shared a few thoughts after the title victory.

“This will be the third year we’re here so we were just really happy and psyched to get here,” McComb said, “but we also had the experience, we’d already been in the big moment. I think we were playing pretty loose today and that really made a big difference, and being here that many years in a row.”

After Cohoes put up a three-spot to cut ICC’s lead down to one, McComb said his team leaders really showed up in a big way to rally the team.

“Our team captains are leaders and they keep us going and they keep us up. Nate Garafalo and Alex Schmidt, they just kept us up in the dugout, kept riling them up, and they’re just great team leaders.”

Coach McComb also said that the team just had to keep doing what they had continued to practice all year so far, and touted the efforts on defense once again.

The Riders will move on to regional play next week after the holiday, but will have to wait until the sectional tournaments finish to see who their opponent will be.