PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. – The SUNY Oneonta baseball team pulled off another come-from-behind win today. This time it was a 5-3 victory against Plattsburgh that kept the Red Dragons playoff hopes alive. Both Plattsburgh State's Scott Orr
and Oneonta's
Thomas Bond (Somers/North Salem) went the distance, but it was Bond and the Red Dragons that came out on top.
The setback drops Plattsburgh State to 4-26 overall and 1-12 in conference games, while Oneonta picks up its eighth win of the season, improving to 8-22 while improving to 4-9 in the SUNYAC.
Orr pitched effectively outside of the first and sixth innings for the Cardinals, allowing a total of eight hits, having walked two and striking out seven. The senior out of Baldwinsville, N.Y. tossed 125 pitches in the losing effort on senior day, eclipsing his previous season-high of 123 pitches, which came in an outing earlier this season against Brockport. In firing a complete game, Orr does so for the second straight season against Oneonta as he threw a complete game shutout last year against the Red Dragons.
The Cardinals scattered seven hits on the afternoon, which came from seven different batters.
Billy Rombauts and
Frank Finkbeiner each picked up an RBI in the setback.
Brandon Torres (Highland Mills/Monroe-Woodbury) was the lone Red Dragon to collect more than one hit in the game, going 2-for-3 with two RBI and a run scored.
After Oneonta scored a run in the top of the first, Plattsburgh State came back with two to hold a 2-1 lead after an inning of play.
Adam Calabro walked, was sacrificed to second on a bunt, stole third and scored on a throwing error on the catcher on the play.
T.J. Montalbano, who was at the plate when Calabro scored, followed by singling up the middle. With two outs,
Billy Rombauts sent a line drive double into the gap in left-center, scoring Montalbano.
Plattsburgh State added a run in the bottom of the second to go up 3-1. Senior
Eric Rock led off the frame with a single to left, before making an alert play on the base paths. After
Matt Fox got a bunt down, Rock instead of stopping at second wisely shot towards third as no Oneonta player was covering third base.
Frank Finkbeiner then sent a line drive up the middle to plate Rock.
Oneonta's
Matt Mastroianni (Somers/North Salem) stole a run in the top of the third for the Red Dragons by walking, advancing to second on a wild pitch, swiping third, and then scoring on a safety squeeze bunt.
Orr would pitch a 1-2-3 fourth before stranding a runner at second base in the top of the fifth. The Red Dragons though got the bats going in the sixth, as they scored three runs on three hits to flip the game around and take a 5-3 lead.
The big blow of the inning came with one out, when
Michael Grudzinski (Islip/Islip) sent a high fly ball deep into the left-center gap for a triple that put the visitors ahead. Oneonta tried once again to bunt a runner home, and it worked as
LJ Gizzarelli (Newburgh/Newburgh Free Academy) successfully sacrificed Grudzinski home on a bunt.
Oneonta's starter
Thomas Bond (Somers/North Salem) shut the Cardinals down over the final four innings, allowing just two hits in that stretch while striking out four. Bond fired 114 pitches in the complete game effort, striking out seven batters.
On Sunday, the two teams will play a doubleheader at Chip Cummings Field, with game one scheduled to start at noon.
