DAVENPORT, Fla. – The Plattsburgh State baseball team wrapped up their trip to the RussMatt Invitational with a dominant 15-1 victory over Knox College. The Cardinals scored 15 runs on 14 hits, scoring in all but one inning, as senior
Joey Di Rocco (Congers, N.Y/Clarkstown South) went 3-4 with two runs, two RBI, and a double to lead the offensive effort.
Senior
Josh Foglia (Latham, N.Y./Shaker) also added two RBI, collecting two hits, and senior
TJ Beninati (Suffern, N.Y./Suffern) had two hits and an RBI for the Cards. On the mound, junior
Kaelen Clarkson (Barrie, Ontario/St. Joseph's Catholic) earned his second win of the season, starting a midweek bullpen game for the Cardinals with a 1-2-3 first. Senior
Kolby Mordecki (Poughkeepsie, N.Y./Roy C. Ketcham) followed with a scoreless inning of his own, while junior
Bostyn Duquette (Plattsburgh, N.Y./Plattsburgh) threw the bulk of the game for the Cards, totaling 3.1 innings and giving up just one run. Junior southpaw
Kwintin Nurse (Wynanstkill, N.Y./Troy) finished off the game for Plattsburgh State with 1.2 scoreless frames.
For Knox, Leo Dircks took the loss, going two innings and giving up five total runs, but only one earned. Tyler Kemp had a base hit for the Prairie Fire and tallied the only RBI.
Plattsburgh State moves to 5-5 with the win and returns to New York for a huge conference series beginning on Friday, March 21, against Oneonta in Oneonta, New York at 3 p.m. Knox falls to 5-3 and next takes on Framingham State on March 20.
After a 1-2-3 first from Clarkson, the Cardinals took advantage of shoddy defense in the bottom of the frame, scoring three runs to jump out to a lead they would hold for the entire game. A walk and single to start the game were followed by an error where the first baseman was unable to catch a throw from the second baseman, which would have surely recorded the first out, and then allowed a run to score and put runners on second and third with no outs. After a line out, senior
Aidan Diltz (Monroe, N.Y./Monroe-Woodbury) drove in another run with a sacrifice fly to right. Beninati then singled in the next run, putting the Cards up 3-0 after an inning of play.
In the bottom of the second, a failed pickoff attempt scored a run for Plattsburgh, and after a HBP, Foglia singled home another run, putting the Cards up 5-0. Plattsburgh added a run in the following inning as Di Rocco scored on a wild pitch, putting the team up 6-0 through three innings.
In the top of the fifth, the Prairie Fire were able to get on the board, cutting the deficit to five runs, but the floodgates opened in the bottom of the inning as Plattsburgh scored seven runs, sending 13 batters to the plate.
Sophomore
Luciano Fiorello (Cornwall, N.Y./Cornwall) registered his first hit and RBI to open the scoring in the fifth with fellow sophomore
Austin Caldwell (Clifton Park, N.Y./Shenendehowa) driving in the next run with an RBI single. After a sacrifice fly to put the Cards up 9-1, Foglia singled home another run for Plattsburgh State. Caldwell scored a few batters later on a wild pitch, and Di Rocco then struck the fatal blow with a two-run single to left.
The Cards would go on to add two runs in the sixth on back-to-back RBI HBPs, before Knox stranded the bases loaded to end the frame. In the top of the seventh, Nurse struck out the first two batters of the inning, and after a single, induced the game-ending fly out to give Plattsburgh the win.
