WINTER HAVEN, F.L. – The record may not have shown it, but the 2012 SUNYIT Baseball Team wrapped up a valuable spring break trip on Saturday. The Wildcats played a grueling non-league schedule in order to prepare for their upcoming NEAC play, and despite finishing 0-9 the team was competitive and held leads in multiple games throughout the week.
The Wildcats started things off on Sunday, March 4, with a doubleheader versus Colby-Sawyer. The two teams split in a similar pairing a season ago, but this time around it was all Colby-Sawyer. The Wildcats, playing outdoors for the first time in 2012, struggled to adjust. Colby-Sawyer broke lose in the second inning, tagging Wildcat ace Pat Baker (Ronkonkoma, N.Y. / Connetquot) for 7 runs in the bottom of the second inning. Colby-Sawyer center-fielder Wylie hit a grand slam in the inning, but only one of the Chargers' 7 runs was earned as the Wildcats made two costly infield throwing errors early on that would've gotten Baker out of the inning.
SUNYIT would go on to lose the first game 10-2, and the second 10-4.
While the Wildcats struggled defensively against a stiff wind that wreaked havoc on fly balls and throws, there were a few bright spots on the day in the forms of senior captain Anthony Surber (Dix Hills, N.Y. / Half Hollow Hills) and freshman pitcher/1B Jeff Albright (New York Mills, N.Y. / New York Mills). Albright, in his first college start, pitched a solid 5 innings, giving up only three runs and earning a no-decision as he left in the 6th inning with the lead. Surber, for his part, finished the day with 4 hits and an RBI after going 3 for 3 in the first game. The senior right-fielder also made a variety of impressive defensive plays, including two sliding catches and a laser throw to home, catching a runner trying to score on a single.
On Day Two of the SUNYIT spring trip, the Wildcats ran into a couple of buzz-saws in the form of WPI pitchers Eric Johnson and Brian Schopka. In the first game, the lefty Johnson was near-unhittable, giving up just 4 hits to no walks and 9 strikeouts.
On the SUNYIT side, junior Michael Rose (Chatham, N.Y. / HVCC) matched Johnson punch for punch and then some, as the 5-foot-8 lefty carried a no-hitter into the fifth inning before Trujillo singled up the middle with two outs. Rose would get out of the inning without giving up any runs, but as was an unfortunate theme for the Wildcats all week, one bad inning would spell doom for SUNYIT. For the Wildcats in their first game versus WPI, it was the bottom of the sixth. After a single to start the inning, a throwing error on a bunt to the pitcher left two on with no outs. Moments later the error-bug struck again on a dropped foul ball. When the dust cleared the Wildcats had given up five runs on 4 hits and two errors. None of the runs were earned.
SUNYIT went 1-2-3 in the seventh and WPI won, 5-0.
Perhaps demoralized after the first game, things got out of hand fast for the Wildcats in the second. The Engineers jumped on starting pitcher Joe Szepessy (Athens, N.Y. / Coxsackic-Athens) for 8 runs on 5 hits and 3 walks in just 2 and 1/3 innings, and with Schopka picking up where Johnson left off SUNYIT looked like they never had a chance, losing 10-0 and falling to 0-4.
Looking for shelter after being the victims of back-to-back shutouts in a single 9-inning game against RIT on Day Three, the Wildcats would find no such safe haven. On the hottest day of the trip so far with temperatures pushing into the upper 80s, the Wildcats again fell behind early, 6-2 through 4 innings. Starting second basemen Devin Frye did his best to keep the Wildcats in it, going three-for-three on the day, but the RIT pitching staff did a good job of scattering SUNYIT's nine hits en route to a 14-3 victory.
Despite finishing the first leg of the trip at 0-5, the Wildcats showed they belonged against some very good teams. Were it not for a few bad innings, SUNYIT was either winning or neck-and-neck at various points of almost every game. Established veterans Chandler Evans and Anthony Surber both played at or above the level of their expectations, and the emergence of Jeff Albright as a force to be reckoned with from the left side of the mound all gave SUNYIT reason to be encouraged heading into a day off before the second half of their trip.
