The Amsterdam Mohawks repeated as New York Collegiate Baseball League champions with a pair of shutouts of Western Division champion Elmira over the weekend.
The Mohawks, champions of the Eastern Division, completed a perfect run through the postseason with a 17-0 win at home Friday at Shuttleworth Park then closed out the best-of-three series by beating the Pioneers 4-0 in Elmira Saturday.
With back-to-back league titles, the Mohawks have now won five NYCBL championships overall and four in Amsterdam since 2003. The franchise’s first title came in 1988 when the Mohawks called Schenectady home.
Both teams were first-place finishers in the regular season and swept their way through the first two rounds of the playoffs. Elmira, which had allowed a total of six runs in its four playoff victories, was tagged for eight in the first inning Friday when Game 1 starter Andrew Wall could get only two outs.
The first six Amsterdam batters all reached base and came around to score against Wall. Leadoff hitter Taylor Lewis had two hits and scored twice while Cody Kulp and Ricky Pacione each knocked in two runs.
Kulp was far from finished doing his damage at the plate. The Mohawks' cleanup hitter and NYCBL co-home run champion went 3-for-5 with three runs scored and eight runs batted in. He drove in two runs with a single in the first inning, two more with a double in the third, one when he hit into a force play in the fifth and three more when he hit his second home run of the playoffs in the eighth.
The big first inning was all the support Kyle Hunter would need on the mound. Hunter pitched six innings of two-hit ball with five strikeouts. A.J. Reyes, Adam Windsor and Jason Patten each pitched one scoreless inning in relief.
Brian Martutartus, Jason Brooks, Kyle Koeneman and Lewis joined Kulp with three hits each among the team’s 22.
The second game was closer but Dan Zlotnick rendered a lower-scoring night insignificant. Zlotnick went seven scoreless innings and struck out four Pioneers before turning a 4-0 lead over to the bullpen. Justin Van Grouw got into a jam in the bottom of the eighth inning when he allowed singles to the first two batters he faced then walked the third to load the bases with nobody out. All-star closer Abram Williams bailed Van Grouw and the Mohawks out by striking Matt Ford out then inducing a double play ball from John Snyder. Williams set the side down in order in the bottom of the ninth to notch his third postseason save.
