Game 1 Box Score
Game 2 Box Score
PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. — The Plattsburgh State baseball team dropped a pair of close games, 3-1 and 1-0, against No. 6/6 SUNY Cortland in State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) action at Chip Cummings Field on Friday. The Cardinals, making their season home opener, drop to 5-14 overall and 0-8 in the league, while the Red Dragons, 2015 Division III World Series champions, are 25-5 and 10-2. Cortland is ranked according to the latest American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) and National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA)/D3baseball.com national polls.
Plattsburgh State junior Joe Deland (Farmingville, N.Y./Sachem East/Suffolk County CC) doubled, scored a run and stole a base and sophomore Patrick Bryant (Center Moriches, N.Y./Center Moriches/Hofstra) walked twice in the opener. Sophomore Matt Fox (Shoreham, N.Y./Shoreham-Wading River) yielded three runs on eight hits while striking out two batters in 8.1 innings for the loss.
Cortland junior Patrick Schetter went 3-for-4 with two RBIs and one run scored, classmate Nate Budge went 2-for-3 with a double and a stolen base and junior Matt Michalski went 2-for-4. Senior Steven Figueroa singled and walked and junior Jack Massa doubled and was hit by a pitch. Senior Jesse Winters earned the win in relief by striking out two batters in two hitless and scoreless innings. Junior Mike Harrington started and allowed just one hit on one run with fanning six batters in 6.1 frames.
The Red Dragons hopped on the board in the top of the second inning. Massa led off with a double and moved to third on a sacrifice bunt before Schetter laced an RBI single to left field. The Cardinals recorded their only hit and run of the game in the sixth inning. Deland ripped a double to left center, moved to third on a groundout and then stole home diving head first to tie the game at 1-1.
Budge started off the top of the ninth with a double that hopped over third base. Schetter followed up four pitches later by singling through the left side for the go-ahead run. Schetter would later score and put Cortland up 3-1 after a Cardinal throwing error. The Red Dragons stranded two runners in scoring position to close out the half inning. In the bottom of the ninth, Plattsburgh State went down in order.
In game two's seven-inning affair, Bryant, Deland, junior Noah Clark (Toms River, N.J/Toms River East/Caldwell) and freshmen Mike Onufrak (Mattituck, N.Y./Mattituck) and Santino Ycaza (Mastic, N.Y./Brentwood Sonderling) all singled, with Deland also walking once. Bryant took the hard-luck loss after surrendering an unearned run on one hit in 5.2 innings.
Figueroa and junior Matthew Personius both singled and freshman Joe Tardif scored Cortland's lone run. Senior Alex Weingarten spun a five-hit shutout with eight strikeouts on 94 pitches.
Onufrak's single to start the bottom of the third served as the second's game first hit. The Cardinals later reached third before an inning-ending strikeout. The visitors registered their first hit of the game on Figueroa's leadoff single in the fourth and both teams would soon remain scoreless through five frames.
Cortland finally broke the scoreless stalemate in the sixth despite not recording a base hit in the process. Massa was hit by a pitch on a 3-1 count to start the inning and he was immediately substituted for Tardif as a pinch runner. Tardif reached second on junior Ralph Nuzzi's sacrifice bunt and later came home on an infield error. The Red Dragons loaded the bases in the seventh but sophomore Frank Finkbeiner (Stone Ridge, N.Y./Rondout Valley) struck out a batter on a full count. Plattsburgh State went down in order in the seventh to end the game.
The Cardinals and Red Dragons close out the series with a single game on Saturday at 12 p.m.