The Plattsburgh State baseball team could not play its first home game Tuesday due to snow and ice on the field, but that couldn’t melt the confidence the players have coming into this week.
Over the spring break, the Cardinals played an exhausting amount of eight games. They faced off against the Oswego State Lakers, the New York University Violets and the SUNY Cortland Red Dragons. PSUC may not have won any of these games, but it competed to the best of its ability head coach Kris Doorey said in a phone interview.
“Hopefully we’ll learn from it, and we’ll get better and better.”
At the end of March, the Cards faced against the SUNY Brockport Golden Eagles in a three-game series. The first game saw scores from Stephen Bryant, Erik Matz, Stephen Lydon and Simon Alvarez. The second game was a win, with scores from Alvarez, Keller Kowalski and Matz. The series ended with both teams scoring very high, but PSUC was bested by the Eagles 9-10.
Even though the Cards were exhausted during the spring break, they are looking forward to their next series with the Oneonta Red Dragons, Doorey said.
“We’re definitely confident heading into our Oneonta series this weekend,” he said.
This season’s team is different than the ones of the past. For three seasons, the team was the youngest in the league. This season, however, 21 junior and seniors will be bringing their experience and hard work, giving them an advantage that they haven’t had for a few seasons. Doorey said.
“Hopefully our experience will count for something, but we’ll still go out and perform.”
Four seniors have graduated since 2018, including Joe Deland, Jacob Stein, Noah Clark, and Mitch Crispens. Five players left the team, including Brantley Marion, Joe Batista, Joel Battista, Chase Blazak and Alex Follmer; leaving seven seniors, 13 juniors, six sophomores and five freshmen.
The team has also seen a change in their assistant coach since 2018. Sam Quinn-Loeb is the team’s assistant coach this season.
The freshmen that have joined the team will hopefully get the team some playing time, including Joe Mazzariello, Pierce Steinberg, Zachary Hemphill and Jake Hutton. The team also gained three junior transfers, Stephen Lydon, Chris Dreier and Kyle Petruzzi. They will all have to step up and perform with the rest of the team.
Doorey has a goal for the team to be significantly better than last year’s. The team has changed their workout program, their practice plans and their philosophies on pitching and offense. The team is hoping all of these changes will bring the team to the playoffs this year.
Last season’s overall record was 12-26, with series with SUNY Canton, Fredonia, Oswego, New Paltz, Brockport, Cortland, and Oneonta.
PSUC played Skidmore College yesterday. Then, they will be playing SUNY Oneonta for the next three-game series today and tomorrow. Then, they will go on to Canton, Colchester, and Elmira on the 13th. They will have their first home game of the season on April 16th against Norwich University.
