Chatham baseball achieves the trifecta – section champs for a third straight season

TROY, N.Y. ( NEWS10 ) — Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Chatham baseball is headed to states.

The two-time defending state champion Panthers won their third straight Class C section title Saturday night at Joseph L. Bruno Stadium, blanking sixth-seeded Hoosick Falls, 5-0.

“They’ve just been dedicated and focused,” said head coach Scott Steltz. “There’s never been a let-down with these guys. This is where they said they were gettin’, and I think we just have to learn to believe these guys.”

Despite losing major contributors to last year’s state championship team, namely Matt Thorsen, who’s currently at Division-I Northeastern University, and Tyler Kneller, who spent last season at Division-II Saint Rose, this group has not skipped a beat. With Saturday’s win, Chatham improves to a remarkable 20-4 on the season.

“At the beginning of the season, we talked about standards and goals,” said senior shortstop and pitcher Tate Van Alstyne. “Just the standard of showing up; giving 100% every day. And the goal was to get here. This pressure is nothing to us, ’cause we’ve done it a lot, and we’re here. We love adversity; we love winning.”

It took all of four pitches in the bottom of the first inning for Chatham to get out to a lead. Van Alstyne drilled the first pitch he saw to straightaway center for a leadoff triple. The next batter, starting pitcher Logan Smalley, drilled a single to left, plating Van Alstyne. The Panthers pushed across two more runs in the inning, spotting Smalley a 3-0 lead as he headed back out to the mound in the second inning.

“I saw that first pitch; I was like, “it’s go-time,”” said Van Alstyne. “And once the guys get going, we get going. It just keeps building up, and that’s what we like to do.”

Chatham built up its lead even more in the third frame. With runners on first and second, L.J. Morse smacked an RBI single to right field, bringing in Bronson Haner. Hunter Kelly followed that up with a screaming double down the left-field line that scored Jacob Carroll, growing the margin to five runs.

True to the team’s motto of loving adversity, Smalley seemed to pitch better when the pressure mounted. He left nine Hoosick Falls runners stranded through five innings of shutout work, while striking out 12.

“The adversity’s a big part of our game,” said Smalley. “We see it; we fight through it. It’s not something we’re scared of. It’s something we love and embrace. And we get the job done.”

Van Alstyne came on in relief of Smalley, also fighting through some adversity to toss two shutout frames. He struck his way out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the sixth. In the seventh, Jake Taylor came up with a double play to eliminate a leadoff error, setting Van Alstyne up to record the final out on a ground ball to Owen Wilber at third base.

Chatham will travel to Saint Lawrence University for a sub-regional matchup with Section 10’s Tupper Lake Thursday, May 30. First pitch is set for 5:00 p.m.

Hoosick Falls’ season comes to a close after a stellar run through the tournament as a six-seed that saw upsets of three-seed Canajoharie and two-seed Saratoga Central Catholic, en route to a section straight championship game appearance. The Panthers finish the year with a 14-7 overall record.

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