WINTER HAVEN, Fla. – The Plattsburgh State baseball team dropped two close games with Bowdoin College on Tuesday afternoon at the RussMatt Invitational. The Cardinals had the tying run on base in their final at-bat of the game one loss, as well as the tying run at the plate in the game two loss.
Senior
Josh Foglia (Latam, N.Y./Shaker) had two hits and a walk across the doubleheader on Tuesday to lead the Cardinal's offensive effort. Sophomore
Hunter Eberhart (East Hampton, N.Y./east Hampton) gave the team three scoreless innings of relief in game one, while senior
Logan Avin (Honolulu, Hawaii/Waterford (Conn.)) pitched five solid innings in his first career start in game two.
Plattsburgh State falls to 4-5 with the pair of losses and next takes on Knox College in their final game of the RussMatt invite tomorrow, March 19 at 4:15 p.m. Bowdoin, who is receiving votes in the ABCA and D3baseball.com Top 25 polls, moves to 11-0 and next takes on Coe College on Wednesday, March 19 in doubleheader action.
Game One: Bowdoin 6, Plattsburgh 4
Bowdoin took game one behind a great start from Jackson Melandy who started the game off his six no-hit innings before running into trouble in game the seventh. Plattsburgh rallied in their final at-bat but stranded the bases loaded as they fell 6-4.
Foglia had the first hit of the game and scored a run, while also drawing a walk. Sophomore
Ian Warren (Esopus, N.Y./Highland) had an RBI single, and senior
TJ Beninati (Suffern, N.Y./Suffern) also drove in a run with a sacrifice fly. Senior
Kyle Cremin (Yorktown Heights, N.Y./Kennedy Catholic) and fifth-year
Alex Kornblau (Pound Ridge, N.Y./Fox Lane) each had RBI walks as well.
Eberhart kept the Cardinals in the game with three scoreless innings of relief, giving up just two hits while striking out one.
Melendy's final line ended with six innings of one-hit ball, allowing three earned runs on five walks and five strikeouts. Alex Saavedra earned the save by recording the final out, and Kevin Murray drove in two runs in a 2-4 day for Bowdoin. Will Bordes was 4-4 with two runs scored and an RBI, as he also added a stolen base.
The Polar Bears wasted little time getting on the board, as Murray drove in Bordes in the first inning with a double to left center and then came around to score on a sacrifice fly, putting Bowdoin up 2-0.
The two-run lead held into the fourth inning, when the Polar Bears added four runs with two outs in the fourth as they collected five straight hits.
As Melendy cruised through six, the six runs seemed to be more than enough run support, but the Cardinals did not go quietly in the seventh. A single up the middle from Foglia that nearly hit Melendy led off the frame and back-to-back walks loaded the bases and knocked out the Bowdoin starter. Beninati greeted the new arm with a sharp line drive to center that stayed up for a sacrifice fly, and Warren followed with an RBI single to left, putting Plattsburgh down 6-2. A walk loaded the bases for the game-tying run, and a new arm once again came in for the Polar Bears. After a struck out, Cremin walked to bring in another run, and another pitching change came in the form of Saavedra, who walked Kornblau and put the go-ahead run on first base. Foglia came back up again and hit a sharp ground ball to first that was stopped by a diving Bowdoin player, who then flipped to Saavedra as he just beat Foglia to the bag, giving the Polar Bears the 6-4 win.
Game Two: Bowdoin 4, Plattsburgh 1
In game two, the pitching was strong on both sides, with Avin giving up just one earned run in five strong innings for Plattsburgh and first-year pitcher
Liam Kenaley (Ithaca, N.Y./Ithaca) tossing a scoreless frame for the Cardinals in relief. For Bowdoin, Rudy Gately gave up one run in three innings, Franco Ruocco earned the win with two scoreless frames, and Bordes locked down the save with two scoreless innings.
Offensively for Plattsburgh,
Joey Di Rocco (Congers, N.Y./Clarkstown South) doubled and scored the lone run, as graduate student
Ben Catrambone (Niskayuna, N.Y./Niskayuna) drove him with a single.
The first inning saw the Polar Bears get all the runs they would need in game two, as Murray doubled home a runner who reached on an error, and after another error prolonged the inning, Bowdoin added two more runs. Will Cooke capped the inning with a single to left to bring home a run and put his team up 3-0.
The Cards responded with a run in the third as Di Rocco led off the inning with a double that one-hopped the wall and senior
Adam Wein (North Rockland, N.Y./North Rockland) followed with a single to center to put runners on the corners. Catrambone then blooped a single to center, getting the Cards on the board and giving the team a chance for more with no outs still. A foul out followed by an inning-ending double play, however, ended the Plattsburgh threat.
The game quickly moved into the bottom of the sixth, and the Polar Bears added a big insurance run with a sacrifice fly to go up 4-1 in the frame.
In the seventh, an HBP and then a single from Beninati put two runners on for Plattsburgh State and brought the tying run to the plate, but a flyout followed by a game-ending double play gave Bowdoin the 4-1 win.
