Saints rally to sectional win over Mechanicville
Jake Hart lead-off triple leads Saratoga Central Catholic in seventh
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. »
Sage baseball coaches often use the phrase ‘If it was easy, they wouldn’t call it hardball,’ and Friday afternoon’s match-up between No. 13 seeded Mechanicville and No. 4 Saratoga Central Catholic as the Red Raiders pushed the Saints to the brink, needing a clutch hit by a veteran and another strong at-bat by an underclassman to advance.
Mechanicville knotted the contest in its half of the seventh inning, taking advantage of a throwing error and stranded a runner at third, putting the pressure on Saratoga Central Catholic.
Saints senior Jake Hart led off the inning with a triple to the center field fence and only had to wait three pitches before Caden Awad to hit a short single to centerfield to score the game-winner for the 6-5 Class B sectional win.
Hart appeared to be an unlikely hero, popping out in foul territory during his first at-bat, striking out looking and hitting a fly ball to centerfield before his big base knock. But he was prepared.
“It’s just kind of like the clean slate mentality, you go up and think every other at-bat doesn’t matter,” Hart said. “I’ve done it before this year where I’ve popped out, struck out, haven’t done what I’m capable of doing and I just kind of went up there and said ‘I don’t care what happened before, I need to get a clutch hit here and put my team in a position that we can win the game.’”
With Hart just 90-feet away, it was then up to Awad who hit an RBI single to left center in his previous at-bat to plate Terel Tillman for the Saints fourth run in the fifth inning.
“I was thinking mostly contact, I’m always pretty nervous up there, but it worked out,” Caden Awad said. “Jake had a great hit, everything worked out.”
Awad also was seeing Mechanicville starter Joe Germain.
“Our coaches have us work on