Baseball: Forshey delivers big win for Tartans

PHOTOGRAPHER: Bill Palmer

It might not have been the tidiest of one-hitters, and it may not have even been Mitch Forshey’s best outing of the season.

But the senior’s shutdown effort in Monday’s 9-0 win over Gloversville was just what Scotia-Glenville needed, as it stayed in the hunt for the Foothills Council baseball title.

“He pitched a great game against [Queensbury’s Charlie] Peltz, and he threw great against South Glens Falls, but this is what we needed,” said Tartans coach John Striffler. “The way the Foothills is this

season, every win is a big win.”

“I don’t really pay attention,” said Forshey, who struck out 14. “I knew I gave up one to their first hitter in the first inning, but it was one of those things where I just had to get past it.”

“I knew,” said catcher Nick Schwab. “Absolutely. They got people on with walks, but I knew that they didn’t have a hit after their first batter.”

“That hit came on a 3-2 count, and he did throw a lot of pitches in that first inning,” said Striffler. “But he controlled the game.”

“It was the first warm day, so it felt good to throw,” Forshey said. “I try to keep pace with it, and I try to keep my pitch count low, but at the same time, if I have an off day and I need to pitch, so be it. If its like 120 or something like that, coach takes me out.”

Forshey mixed his pitches and locations well enough that Gloversville hit only four other balls to the outfield, and two of those turned into forceouts. Four of his strikeouts came on called third strikes.

Forshey only got the side in order in the second and seventh innings, and worked out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the first inning with a pair of strikeouts.

Coming off a 13-4 win at Gloversville, Schwab and Forshey had a good idea of how they wanted to approach the Gloversville lineup.

“I know the middle of their lineup can hit the ball very well,” said Schwab, who calls the pitches. “We didn’t want to give them too many things to hit. We kind of danced around with the off-speed stuff, and gave them a couple of high fastballs to see if they would chase.

“Against Queensbury, everything he threw was at the knees. He made one mistake, and that was the difference. He threw pretty well today.”

“He calls it, and I can always shake him off,” said Forshey, who was in tune with his catcher all game. “He’s very smart, very knowledgeable.

“We got them out with high fastballs and off-speed stuff low and away.”

Schwab and Forshey drove in first-inning runs to put Scotia ahead early. Schwab knocked in leadoff hitter Luke Mancini with the first of his two hits, and Dan Zeglen scored when Forshey hit into a force out.

Chris Borden hit an RBI double and scored in the third, and the Tartans put the game away with a three-run fifth that was aided by a bad-hop single over the head of Huskies’ shortstop Kevin Johnston on what looked like a routine double play.

“Home-field advantage. That was the first thing I said,” Forshey said of the fortunate bounce. “When we got guys on, we kept tacking runs on.”

“I’ve seen games where teams were up, 8-0, and the other team came back to win,” said Striffler. “You always want to tack on more runs.”

Marty McCollum and Tom Militano added run-scoring fly balls in the Scotia sixth, with Forshey stealing a run when Huskies’ center fielder Chris Rockefeller didn’t get the ball back to the infield quickly.

The Tartans are 6-4 with four league games left, two with both Johnstown and Broadalbin-Perth. Both of those teams are also part of a tightly bunched top of the league standings.

“Gloversville (4-6) split with Queensbury earlier in the season, so sweeping Gloversville is a big thing,” said Schwab.

“Everybody in the league has been on and off all year. Its great to see that it’s a close, competitive race, rather than one team way out in front,” said Forshey, who would also like to see the Tartans win a Class A title after losing in the semifinals a year ago and in the championship game in 2011.

“We’re getting closer and closer, but I think this year we have a really great chance of pulling it off,” he said. “Our seniors are really looking forward to getting a sectional championship.”

Gloversville 000 000 0 — 0 1 2

Scotia 202 032 x — 9 9 0

Casimiro, Vandeneabeele (6) and Murray; Forshey and Schwab.