YOUTHFUL SCOTTIES FALL TO EXPERIENCED DEVILS
9-run sixh and pitching woes doom Ballston Spa
BALLSTON SPA, N.Y. » Age before beauty.
Ballston Spa is a young, good looking baseball squad, but Columbia High was a bit more matured and its Virginia Commonwealth-bound 6-foot 7-inch starter, Danny Watson, found himself as Wednesday’s game wore on and the Blue Devils got the best of the Scotties, 16-4 in Suburban Council action.
“We have a lot of seniors, we have a lot of experience and last year coming in the year we had a lot of juniors and a lot of young guys that didn’t have that experience,” Columbia slugger Nicolas Stagnitta said. “I think coming into this year knowing it’s going to be a tough game.
“There are a lot of good teams, there are a lot of good players and knowing we have a lot of good players and we work hard, if we just grind it out, it’ll go our way.”
Grinding was what both squads did through the first five innings with three ties and three lead changes the league tilt was as advertised before Columbia exploded for a nine-inning sixth five-hit, four-walk , a hit-by-pitch including Stagnitta’s three-run home run put the game away.
“I struck out earlier in the game and we’ve got a lot of teammates and we pick each other up,” Stagnitta said. “I was just looking for something to drive, maybe a line drive, and I just got a piece of it.”
Stagnitta went 3-for-5 with a run scored and five RBI on the day along with lead-off batter Justin Pangburn going 2-for-2 with three runs
scored, four RBI and taking three free passes. Near the bottom of the order Matthew Wimmer made his presence felt, going 2-for-3 with three runs scored and an RBI.
The nine-run sixth was more than enough for Columbia starter Danny Watson who took advantage of the cushion and a five-pitch fourth inning to earn himself an extra frame on the mound.
“The first inning I think it was 26 pitches, which is way too much for an inning, so that five pitch inning helped a lot so I can get back out there for another inning,” Danny Watson said. “I just didn’t have a feel for the ball early on and the around the third ending I started using the rosin bag and then I started to get my stuff back.
“My slider wasn’t really working, luckily I have more pitches so then I went to my mainly fastball, a little bit of my change-up,” Watson said. “Having more pitches works out if one’s not working, then I have another one to go to.”
Watson gave up four runs, only one earned in the 95-pitch outing Wednesday. He struck out four batters and walked four.
“Danny was kind of fighting his tempo a little bit,” Columbia coach Chris Dedrick said. “He’s six-seven, he had a lot of adrenaline going and when you’re sixseven and you have all that adrenaline, sometimes the pieces don’t stay together.
“Once he got his composure, more warmed up as we went on I thought he did a great job. He was really throwing strikes, get ahead of guys and that’s what he can do.”
Meanwhile the Scotties struggled at the plate and on the mound, coming away with only three clean hits and its five different pitchers not helping the cause.
“Our youth got exposed,