The Plattsburgh State baseball team looks forward to its first conference series up north since its battle down in Florida when the Cardinals went up against the College at Brockport, a notoriously well-rounded baseball program.
The Cards are coming off of time spent on the road where they lost two out of three to Vassar College, however head coach Kris Doorey was pleased with how his team performed over the weekend.
“We played very well,” Doorey said. “We are just so young, that sometimes we let one inning slip away from us, and we’re having trouble getting through that right now.”
PSUC fell short on a couple big opportunities over the weekend that could have changed the outcome of its weekend, however, the Cards are pushing forward to break through when it is needed most.
“We had the bases loaded in the seventh and eighth innings with one out and we didn’t get a run either time,” Doorey said. “We got good pitching that night which kept us in the game, so hopefully we can learn from this weekend and get better.”
After losing the first two games of the series, PSUC avoided being swept by defeating the Brewers 4-1 last Sunday in the latter game of the doubleheader.
This weekend presents an opportunity for the Cards to achieve their first conference victory of the season. While PSUC’s potential home openers have yet again been postponed due to unmet field conditions, the team is still feeling ready for its upcoming stretch of games.
“Looking forward, we have Oswego this weekend then Cortland next weekend, so in our first three weekends of SUNYAC conference play, we’re going to play the three best teams,” Doorey said. “It gives us a good idea of where we’re at. We were ahead in all three games we played against Brockport, who just beat Cortland two out of three, so if we can play with Brockport then we should be able to compete with these other teams.”
Oswego State is ranked No. 9 in the country so far this season. In last year’s meetings, the Cards were unable to pick up a victory in the three games against the Lakers. This time around, PSUC is hopeful to come out firing and on top this weekend on the road.
“I expect us to go out and compete,” assistant coach Brian Burns said. “We know that they have talent and have one of the best players in the country, but we aren’t going to back down from them. I expect us to come right at them.”
This weekend marks the beginning of a stretch of five games over the course of four days for the Cards, which could hinder how the team performs due to its practices being mainly confined to indoors.
“They just want to play, especially conference games,” Burns said. “Now this week they get the chance to possibly play six games in seven days, which is exciting to them.”
In its first 13 games of the season, PSUC has an overall record of 4-9 (0-3). Last year, the Cards were 2-11 at this point. Although two wins may not seem like a big difference, the entire fight and talent level this year is incomparable to last year’s, which is why PSUC isn’t worried about its relatively slow start.
“Our young guys have been given a lot of chances and have been making the most out of them,” Burns said. “I expect our guys to go out there this weekend and play hard.”
Email Ezra Kachaturian at sports@cardinalpointsonline.com
