PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. – Plattsburgh State baseball senior T.J. Montalbano (Dix Hills, N.Y./Half Hollow Hills West/Jefferson CC) ripped a two-out, two-run single in the bottom of the ninth inning as the Cardinals rallied to beat SUNY New Paltz, 6-5, in State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) play at Chip Cummings Field on Wednesday. The Cardinals move to 7-17 overall and 1-11 in the league, while the Hawks are 14-13 and 7-8.
Montalbano finished the day 2-for-5 with two RBIs, while senior Ray Flynn (Bethpage, N.Y./Plainedge) went 2-for-2 with a walk for Plattsburgh State. Freshman Frank Tricamo (Deer Park, N.Y./Half Hollow Hills West) doubled as part of his two-hit, two-RBI day, junior Adam Calabro (Danbury, Conn./John Jay-East Fishkill) had an RBI single and drew a walk and juniors Noah Clark (Toms River, N.J./Toms River East/Caldwell), Joe Deland (Farmingville, N.Y./Sachem East/Suffolk County CC) and Jack Tolosky (Plattsburgh, N.Y./Plattsburgh) each singled and stole a base. Senior Billy Rombauts (East Islip, N.Y./East Islip/Erskine) singled, was hit by a pitch, put down a sacrifice bunt and scored two runs and freshman Kentaro Mori (Tokyo, Japan/Joto) stole a base and scored the game-winning run. Sophomore Ryan Whalen (Plattsburgh, N.Y./Plattsburgh) allowed three runs on five hits in 6.2 innings for the no decision and freshman Justin Adams (Valhalla, N.Y./Westlake) earned his first career win by throwing 2.1 relief frames.
New Paltz sophomore Justin Ganca went 2-for-4 with a triple and an RBI single and junior Nick DePietro had two singles and two stolen bases. Junior Anthony Pantano provided an RBI double and freshman Savino Citriniti singled, walked, was hit by a pitch and contributed a sacrifice fly. Junior Conor Donachie took the no decision after 4.2 innings and freshman John LoCurto was tagged with the loss in relief.
The Cardinals trailed by two runs to start the bottom of the ninth. A flyout started the home half, followed by a New Paltz defensive error that allowed the runner to reach second base. Another flyout one batter later was soon followed by a wild pitch that put sophomore pinch runner Chris Robertson (Thiells, N.Y./Saint Joseph Regional) at third with two outs. Sophomore Patrick Bryant (Center Moriches, N.Y./Center Moriches/Hofstra) drew a six-pitch walk and Mori came in to pinch run. With runners on the corners, Mori swiped second standing up and Montalbano, who was down two strikes, came up with the game-winning two-run hit.
Plattsburgh State grabbed the game's first lead when Tricamo clubbed a two-out RBI double in the second inning. The Hawks scored twice in the fourth to take the 2-1 lead but the Cardinals equalized in the fifth on Tolosky's two-out RBI single up the middle. Two more Cardinal runs in the sixth gave the hosts a 4-2 edge but New Paltz scored once in the seventh and twice in the eighth to take a 5-4 lead.
Plattsburgh State is on the road for its next six games, beginning with a three-game SUNYAC series at SUNY Oneonta, which starts Friday at 3 p.m.