BUENA VISTA, Va. - The Plattsburgh State baseball team fell to Southern Virginia on Saturday afternoon in a high-scoring affair, losing 9-8 in non-conference action. Despite two home runs from junior infielder Alex Kornblau (Pound Ridge, N.Y. ), the Cardinals struggled to quell the Knights' bats as they finished with nine runs on eight hits. 

Plattsburgh took two early leads thanks to the Kornblau blasts, but a two-run first inning, a five-run third, and two runs in the fourth, were just enough for the Knights to escape with a win. The two homers for Kornblau make him the first Cardinal since 2009 to have a multi-homer game, with the last occurrence being on April 25, 2009 when Joe Curcio had two blasts against rival SUNY Cortland. Sophomore infielder Kyle Cremin (Yorktown Heights, N.Y./Kennedy Catholic) also homered for the Cards in the loss, driving in two runs in the process. 

The Cardinals move to 1-2 on the season and will begin their Ripken Experience at Myrtle Beach schedule tomorrow, March 12, with a 3 p.m. meeting against Scranton at the Ripken Experience Ebbets Field. Southern Virginia improves to 6-5 with the win and will next travel to Averett University on March 14. 

Plattsburgh State jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in their first trip to the plate, as Kornblau destroyed a Knight's offering to left-center for his first homer of the year. Southern Virginia, however, would grab the lead right back in the bottom of the inning with a two-run triple. After each team went scoreless in the second, Kornblau struck again, this time with a blast to right-center field for a three-run homer, putting the Cards back up 4-2. The lead was short-lived once again, as Southern Virginia responded with five runs on four hits in the bottom of the third inning to take the lead they would not relinquish. 

After tacking on two runs in the bottom of the fourth, the Cards turned to junior left-hander Chris Santic (Stony Point, N.Y./North Rockland) to toe the rubber and the southpaw responded. Santic held the Knights's offense scoreless for the remainder of the game, throwing five innings, allowing just two hits and no runs, while striking out five. 

After Santic entered the game and got Plattsburgh out of a jam in the fourth, Cremin hit his first homer of the year, going to straight-away center field to score himself and Kornblau, putting the Cards back in the game, down just three runs. The Cards went on to tack on an unearned run in the sixth and seventh innings, but after putting the tying run on base in the ninth, the bats couldn't come through to complete the comeback.

Kornblau finished the day 3-4 with four RBIs and three runs scored to go along with a walk. Ben Catrambone (Niskayuna, N.Y./Niskayuna) recorded the first two hits of his collegiate career with a 2-4 effort that included a run scored and Andrew Veit(Yaphank, N.Y./Bellport) doubled for Plattsburgh.

Kolby Mordecki (Poughkeepsie, N.Y./Roy C. Ketcham) was tagged with the loss on the mound for Plattsburgh while Nate McCallum earned the win and Ryan Farris picked up the save for the Knights. Mitch Smith finished with a 2-4 effort at the dish for Southern Virginia, adding three RBIs, a run scored, and a triple.