The SUNY Oneonta baseball team kept its SUNYAC tournament hopes alive with its 7-2 victory at home against Brockport today. The Red Dragons need to sweep the remaining two games tomorrow and have Fredonia get swept tomorrow by Cortland to secure the fourth and final playoff spot. Fredonia lost its series opener today at home to Cortland.
A four-run seventh inning for Oneonta (11-23/6-10 SUNYAC) proved to be the big difference in the game while the pitching of sophomore
Steve Ascher (Cutchogue/Mattituck) kept Brockport bats silent. Ascher pitched 8 1/3 innings, allowing five hits and two runs while striking out six hitters en route to picking up his fourth win of the season.
The Oneonta bats came alive today, recording 14 hits including a couple of hits with two outs to score key runs. Senior
Ivan Plata (Guilderland/Guilderland) and sophomore
Jake Robinson (Oyster Bay/Oyster Bay) led the offense with three hits apiece. Senior
Chris Massaroni (Voorheesville/Voorheesville) drove in three runs including a pair in Oneonta's four run seventh.
The Red Dragons scored single runs in the first and second innings to jump out to an early lead.
Christopher Orlando (Putnam Valley/Putnam Valley) drove in the game's first run on a ground out to second base that scored Plata, who led off the inning with a single to left center field. In the second inning, freshman
Chris Romano (Mahopac/Mahopac) had a two-out single to left field to drive in Robinson from third for the game's second run.
Brockport (18-14/5-11) got a run back in the top of the fifth inning. Dan Hurlimann hit a one-out triple to deep center field that was just outside the reach of
Rob Peluso (Rensselaer/Columbia). Brendan Swayne drove Hurlimann in with a two-out single to left field.
Oneonta pushed its lead back to two runs with a single run in the bottom of the fifth inning. Massaroni hit a two-out double to left center that scored Plata from second base. Plata started the inning with a single and stole second to get himself into scoring position.
In the seventh inning, Plata led off with a double to right center and went to third on an infield single by Sean Haussel. Plata scored on a single by Orlando. Haussel and Orlando both scored on Massaroni's double and Massaroni scored on a single to right field by Robinson.
The Red Dragons and Golden Eagles will square off again tomorrow in a doubleheader beginning at noon. The first game is a seven-inning contest while game 2 is a nine-inning affair.
