Hammerin' Horde attack in Valley Falls

It wasn't the game I was expecting, not with Hoosic Valley coming off a big win over Greenwich last week and the best team in the Wasaren League - Granville - dropping by Chapko-Lewis Stadium for another chance for the Indians to prove themselves.

Granville's Nick Dunbar (6) slid in safe at home on a wild pitch in the third inning, just under the tag of Hoosic Valley starter Matt Campisi (right) and the floodgates were opened. (All photos by J.S. Carras - The Record).

The Golden Horde (5-0, 11-0) scored 10 more runs in the inning - all with two outs, no less - en route to a 20-1 shellacking of the Indians on their home field. Granville's next 11 hitters all safely reached base - yikes - and 10 came around to score.
An inch here or an inch there and Dunbar is called out at the plate and the inning is over, Hoosic Valley trailing 3-0. That's a completely different ballgame, but it just didn't go the Indians' way on Thursday afternoon.
It was freezing, it was windy and the umpires were in a grouchy mood (and construction crews working on the field across the street were giving me a headache) so perhaps the Indians just chalked it up as a bad day and can move on.

Granville, on the other hand, looks like the real deal as they roped one line drive after another into the gaps. Catcher Bruce Loomis crushed a home run over the shallow left-center field fence on the first pitch of the fifth inning, drawing some barks from the Hoosic Valley dugout when the whole Granville team came out to meet him at the plate. Granville parents said it was their first home run of the year, so I didn't think it was an act of poor sportsmanship (Granville was leading 18-1 at that point).

Granville's Connor Hoagland (left) is nailed at first base as Hoosic Valley's Tyler Ackerman stepped on third base and threw to first baseman Jim Sheeran (right) to compelte a double play.

It wasn't a bad day for defense on Thursday, as both teams turned a pair of double plays. Granville starting pitcher Ryan Rescott initiated two 1-6-3 twin killings and Hoagland made a fantastic diving stab at second base to rob Sheeran of a base hit in the third.

Ryan Rescott (18) slides in safe as part of the Horde's 11-run third inning on Thursday against Hoosic Valley. Indians' catcher Matt Clickner (right) is unable to hold on to the relay throw as Granville's Jayson Osborne (20) looks on.

Hoosic Valley junior Jarod Grieco pitched three solid innings of relief (he did do it with an expanded strike zone and against many pinch hitters) but with only 11 players on the roster, the Indians are looking for all the arms they can get and it looks like Grieco will get more innings in the future.

The Indians try to get back at it next week with road games at Cambridge and Tamarac.
Hoosic Valley (2-3, 3-3) head coach Boyd Hunt coached the current Indians seniors to an 11-3 record as sophomores on the junior varsity level and he knows this group has the talent to make a push in sectionals.

"We have the potential to make a run here," Hunt said. "We have three losses in the league, but as long as we get the seven wins we need to get to sectionals, I think we can make run."