The Lansingburgh Royals may have given manager Ernie Ryan a lot more gray hair over the last few weeks - read all about that in The Record on Friday - but they've also provided local baseball fans with some very exciting games the past two weeks.
They took two days and three starting points and 16 innings to drop a game to the South Troy Dodgers 17s in the Connie Mack World Series qualifier a few weeks ago and erased a 7-0 deficit to post an 8-7 victory over the Sorensco Falcons on Monday, punching their ticket into the UNYSABA Tournament.

Another rain delay turned Thursday's rematch with the Falcons into a five-and-a-half hour eight inning marathon, but the Royals found a way to come out on top yet again.

Zak Hunt worked out of jams three times in the final three innings and Kyle Brisson, who entered the game as a pinch runner prior to the rain delay in the seventh, delivered the game-winning RBI single with two outs in the top of the eighth.

"It was just great defense," Hunt said. "They stuck behind me pretty good and our hitting is solid. We’re hitting it pretty good and it’s coming along."

"He’s always in trouble, that’s how he pitches," Lansingburgh manager Ernie Ryan laughed. "He goes full count on a lot of people, but he has the stuff to get people out when he gets behind, too."

Lansingburgh won, 6-5, and earned a bye into the fourth round of the tournament, which will kick off Friday at 3:30 p.m. at Boght.

"We have the bye now, so that was a big win for us," Brisson said. "The intensity was real high. Actually, I’m still shaking from it."

Friday's Schedule

Sorensco will face South Colonie in an elimination game at 10 a.m.
The South Troy 17s face North Colonie in a winner's bracket game at 1 p.m.
Teams will redraw after that game and play a pair at 3:30 and two more at 6 p.m.
*The winner of this tournament earns a berth in the North Atlantic Regional, which begins next Wednesday in Troy.

"We were the last seed to enter, we weren’t supposed to beat Watertown and nobody ever expected us to beat this team Monday to get in and to beat them again in the tournament," Lansingburgh manager Ernie Ryan said. "Don’t take anything away from Sorensco – they have a lot of good pitching and they’re a good team. But that’s baseball and that’s why you play the game. You never know who gets a hit at the right time. They very well could have had a hit with the last kid up and won the game by a run against us, so you just never know."

"It would have been a lot more fun to be on the winning side of it, but I told the kids it was a great game to go back and forth and that they didn’t give up," said Sorensco manager Dan Renaud. "Even when they gave up the go-ahead run in the eighth, they could have folded pretty easily but we battled, got on base and we were one hit away from winning the game. That’s how close it was."

Lansingburgh Royals starter Zach Carle went the first five and 2/3 innings before handing the ball over to former Cambridge High teammate Zak Hunt in Thursday's 6-5, eight inning victory over the Sorensco Falcons in the UNYSABA Connie Mack Tournament at the Boght Area Baseball Complex. (All photos by J.S. Carras - The Record).

Lansingburgh center fielder Ray Carmel connects with a pitch during Thursday's game. Carmel doubled and scored in the first inning and made a great catch for the second out in the bottom of the eighth inning.

Sorensco's first baseman Nolan Gaige makes a nifty play on Zak Hunt's ground ball before firing to pitcher Matt Nash covering the bag for the final out of the third inning. Gaige walked three times, scored two runs and contributed an RBI single in the third inning of Thursday's game.

Lansingburgh shortstop Josh Lewyckyj readies for a throw to first as second baseman C.J. Lozano looks on. The shortstops have had many a tough bounce during the first two days of the tournament on field one at Boght - Lewyckyj got a bloody mouth at the end of Wednesday's game against Watertown - and we'll see how Thursday's rain impacts the fielders when the games resume Friday morning at 10 a.m.

The grounds crew at Boght deserves a lot of credit for making the resumption of this game possible. Soresnco manager Dan Renaud was out there raking forever, members of the North Colonie Padres organization were working hard on the infield dirt and tournament director Joe Henkel drove around in circles on the tractor about 8,000 times to help expedite the drying in the infield. If you're going to the games on Friday, give those folks a pat on the back because they saved the day for the kids.

Lansingburgh 6, Sorensco 5 (8)

LANSINGBURGH SORENSCO
ab r h bi ab r h bi
Carmel cf 4 1 1 0 Vooris rf 3 0 0 0
Russo lf-c 5 0 1 0 1-Doughtie 3b 2 0 1 1
Lewyckyj ss 5 2 1 1 Murdick ss-p 4 1 1 0
Gardner rf 3 1 0 0 Gaige 1b-lf 2 2 1 1
Zareski 3b 4 2 2 1 Papas cf 5 0 3 1
Hastings c 2 0 1 1 Schultz lf-p-rf 3 0 0 0
a-Brisson pr-lf 1 0 1 1 Tidd dh-1b 4 0 3 2
Hunt dh-p 4 0 1 1 Kasper c 2 0 0 0
Lozano 2b 4 0 2 1 2-Loughman ph1 0 0 0
Yattaw 1b 2 0 0 0 3-Jurcaynski c 1 0 0 0
Casavant 3b-ss4 1 1 0
Williams 2b 2 1 0 0
Totals 34 6 10 6 Totals 33 5 10 5
Lansingburgh ...........................200 030 01 - 6 10 2
Sorensco .....................003 011 00 - 5 10 2
a-ran for Hastings in seventh. 1-entered defensively for Vooris in fifth. 2-grounded out for Kasper in fifth. 3-entered defensively for Loughman in sixth.
E-Nash, Casavant, Zareski, Hunt. LOB-Lansingburgh 13, Sorensco 13. 2B-Carmel, Zareski, Lozano. SB-Brisson, Murdick, Gaige 2, Papas 2, Schultz 2. CS-Murdick. Sac-Hunt, Williams. DP-Lansingburgh 1 (Hunt, Lewyckyj & Yattaw). GIDP-Kasper.
Lansingburgh ip h R er BB SO
Carle 5ª 8 5 4 4 2
Hunt, W 2¤ 2 0 0 4 3
Sorensco ip h R er BB SO
Nash 4¤ 8 5 3 1 4
Schultz 2ª 0 0 0 2 6
Murdick, L 1 2 1 1 1 0
Inherited runners-scored: Schultz 2-0, Hunt 2-0.
PB-Hastings, Jurczynski. HBP-by Nash (Gardner, Hastings) by Schultz (Hastings, Carmel). Delay: Rain, 2:35.

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