Baseball Falls in Extras to No. 10 Herkimer

CONTACT: Adam Sopris, a.sopris@hvcc.edu, 518-629-7898 or 518-416-2137
FOR RELEASE: Immediate, Thursday, March 31, 2022

The Hudson Valley Community College baseball team nearly pulled out an upset win over No. 10 Herkimer as the two programs battled through 10 innings of back-and-forth baseball in the Vikings Region 3 opener Thursday afternoon at Joe Bruno Stadium. The Generals pulled away in the tenth inning to secure the 17-11 win. 

The day started as a scheduled double header, but it ending after the marathon 10-inning slugfest because of the impending storm passing through the Capital Region. The second game was postponed and will be rescheduled at a date that has yet to be announced. 

Jacob Lapham took the start for the Vikings and put some energy into the crowd following a 1-2-3 inning in the top of the first. It catapulted into a big home half for the Vikings as they put two runs on the board from a 2 RBI single by Ian Martinez, scoring Brendan Shader and Mike Talavera. 

Herkimer responded immediately in the top half of the second inning as T. Gallagher connected for a three-run opposite-field home run, erasing their deficit and jumped up 3-2 on Hudson Valley. 

The back-and-forth continued into the next half inning when the Vikings posted four more runs to lead 6-3. Jaden Ross hit an RBI single, scoring Jake Hall, who found his way on base via a Herkimer error and T.J. Strevell advanced to third. Ross and Strevell later scored as a result of a massive three-run home run hit by Mike Talavera as he sent a pitch to the scoreboard in deep leftfield.

Herkimer tied the game up again in the third inning as they scored three runs on three hits and then they started to gain momentum in the seventh inning as they connected for a two-run home run to extend their lead to 10-7. 

Heading in to the final cuts for the Vikings, they completed the comeback to force extra innings when Strevell sent a two-run double to right-centerfield, scoring Tyler Smith and Josh Foglia, tying the game at 10-10. Foglia reached on a double, which scored Talavera and advanced Noah Fasso, setting up the game-tying hit by Strevell. 

The Vikings had to do it all over again in the eighth as they trailed 11-10 and they delivered when Jonathan Delgadillo hit a one-out single, which allowed Ian Martinez to advance to third. On the next play, Delgadillo was caught stealing, but not before Martinez successfully stole home to tie the game back up and extend the game. 

In the tenth inning, the Generals put the game away as they scored six runs on four hits, which included two, two-run home runs in the inning. The six-run deficit was too much to overcome in the home half of the inning for the Vikings. 

The Vikings will see the nationally-ranked Generals again this Saturday, April 2 when they travel to Herkimer for a doubleheader. The first pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m.