The Plattsburgh State baseball team’s postseason hopes have come to an end as they have been eliminated from the SUNYAC playoff contention.
The Cardinals (9-21, 1-14) were swept in a three-game series by No. 21/24 SUNY Oswego (21-9, 12-3) Saturday and Sunday.
“Obviously,” said Kris Doorey, PSUC head coach, “it’s very disheartening to be eliminated from the playoffs. We’re in year two of a rebuilding phase, and we’ve definitely taken some steps forward, but I think the conference is extremely tough.”
Doorey acknowledged that being a team mostly made of sophomores was a key disadvantage for the Cards.
“We’re definitely the youngest team in the conference,” Doorey said, “so, we have to learn from it and get better.”
PSUC only had four seniors this season but will have eight seniors next year.
The Cards are focused on winning the rest of their scheduled games to end their season. They began that with two victories from a double-header against Division II’s Saint Michael’s College (6-26) Tuesday.
“[Tuesday] was probably the first day that we had everybody healthy,” Doorey said. “We had three of our top relief pitchers go down early in the year, and that put us in a bind right off the bat, where we’re putting freshman in games to pitch against Cortland, Oswego and teams of that nature.”
Further, Doorey cited being able to put players in the lineup that haven’t played since March when PSUC went to Florida.
“It’s been a hectic year,” Doorey said, “with the weather and the injuries and the way the schedule fell for us.”
The Cards will compete at SUNY Fredonia (15-12, 5-9) today at 3 p.m. followed by a doubleheader Saturday starting at noon. The team swept Fredonia last year, and Doorey remains confident today.
“They have the same issue we have,” Doorey said. “It’s the longest trip in the conference and a haul to get out there, but the guys are excited.”
While PSUC hasn’t had the best year, Doorey believes timing was just another thing stacked against the team.
“It’s not that they played terribly all season long,” Doorey said. “It’s that they played terrible in spurts and at the wrong moments.”
PSUC will use their conference games at Fredonia as fuel to win their last few contests.
“We got three more conference games to possibly eliminate them from the playoffs,” Doorey said. “That’s what we’ll use to as motivation.”
Email Lexus Gomez at sports@cardinalpointsonline.com
