Ballston Spa stays hot with victory over Shaker
Ballston Spa rolled to a 4-0 Suburban Council win at Shaker. The Scotties were in control of that game thanks to a masterful complete-game performance from pitcher Grady Gawrys.
LATHAM, N.Y. » Stephen Acquario turned around to the home plate umpire with a frustrated and befuddled look on his face.
“Do you really want to end the game that way?” the Shaker captain said.
The strike three call on the outside corner did end Ballston Spa’s 4-0 win at Shaker. That was the final call. But regardless of if that was called a strike or a ball, the Scotties were in control of that game. Grady Gawrys was too good for Ballston Spa. He went all seven innings without allowing a run. A dominant performance for a team now ranked No. 11 in New York State’s Class AA NYSSWA rankings.
“I really had my fastball going today,” Gawrys said. “My curveball wasn’t really going. I was trying to throw strikes and let my defense give me support.”
Gawrys was named the starter after the game was pushed back a day due to rain. His dominant performance pushed his ERA to under 3.00 for the season. The win helped solidify Ballston Spa as the top Class AA team in Section II. Shaker, trying to make a statement of their own, couldn’t put the offense together. The Bison dropped to 5-4 on the season with the loss. Gawrys, a senior, said he realized his curveball was off when he hit a few batters. But he tried to, in his words, “trust it, not guide it.” That’s when he started to throw the pitch for a strike.
“Strikes. A lot of strikes,” Ballston Spa head coach Curtis Nobles said of what he saw from Gawrys. “I saw him mixing and matching. He was up in the zone. Down in the zone. Our catcher called a great game. We played solid defense behind him.”
The Scotties’ defense was sharp the whole way through. There were a couple baserunners in the fifth inning, but Gawrys got out of the jam unscathed. That was after Ballston Spa scored two runs on a single in the top half of the inning. The team improved to 8-1, and this was one game after the only loss of the season, 6-0 to Niskayuna.
This was also the first game for the Scotties since they found out their new state ranking, giving them a tangible understanding of how good they are, not just within Section II. Nobles showed some concern that rankings and winnings streaks might lead to some complacency, but if that is the case, it sure didn’t seem like that on Thursday afternoon. “We don’t pay attention to it, to be honest with you,” Nobles said. “We try to keep blinders on. Keep our focus at a high level. Because again, those are distractions to us. We’re just here to play baseball and win games.”
And on Thursday, keeping blinders on meant standing back and watch Gawrys play his game. Even without one of his primary pitches working, he was still able to gut out a win. And a shutout. Acquario stared back at the umpire and Gawrys celebrated with his catcher. It didn’t end in a way that the Shaker captain thought fair. But through seven innings, the Ballston Spa starter didn’t let anything come across. If the Scotties are going to climb higher in the rankings, he’ll be a big part of it. “We all just want to be the best team,” Gawrys said. “I’m not really worried what we’re ranked. I’m just worried about what we do each and every day.”