KEUKA PARK, N.Y. – The SUNY Poly Baseball Team hung on for a pair of close victories in NEAC action at Keuka Saturday afternoon. The Wildcats won both games by a score of 4-2.
Both games featured outstanding pitching from the Wildcats' staff. In the first game, Jeff Albright picked up his third win of the year, going 7 innings strong while allowing just a single run. The big lefty gave up just 5 hits while striking out 3.
Albright earned the win after the Wildcats rebounded from a 1-0 hole with 2 runs in the top of the 5th inning. SUNY Poly scored on an RBI single by shortstop Dante Rose, which plated catcher Dylan Gorski. Rose later scored on an RBI fielder's choice by Joseph O'Rourke.
The Wildcats added single runs in the 6th and 7th innings, as Rose again singled home a run followed by a Tyler Vyce base hit in the 7th, which scored O'Rourke.
Rose had a great game at the plate, going 3-for-4 with a run scored and the two RBI's. One of his singles scored Connor Passalacqua, who joined Rose for the team-lead in hits, finishing the 9-inning affair with a 3-for-5 performance.
Andrew Scharra pitched a scoreless 8th inning to hold the 4-1 lead for the Wildcats, and Joseph Redmond came on in the 9th for his 5th save of the season. Redmond experienced a bit of a speed bump in the inning, as a single, a walk, and an error loaded the bases with no outs. Alec Bowie then singled home a run, leaving the bases loaded and the tying run on 2nd base. Redmond settled down after that, however, inducing a pop-up and then a 6-4-3 double play to end the game.
As fate would have it, the second game included even more drama.
After earning the save in the first game, Redmond got the start in Game 2. As was perhaps portended during his rocky 7th inning in the first game, Redmond didn't have his best stuff on Saturday, yet the senior showed his mettle by battling through 6 innings of work and giving his team a chance to win. Redmond survived a highly unusual 7 walks, limiting the damage to just 2 Keuka runs.
The Wildcat offense rewarded their pitcher, pushing single runs across in the top of the 6th and 7th innings to tie the score 2-2 and send the game to extra innings.
In the top of the 8th, it was Rose again coming up with a clutch hit. The sophomore righty singled through the left side to score Passalacqua. That was followed by a Ray Smith RBI-groundout, which scored Gorski.
Scharra would go on to hold the Wolfpack in the bottom half of the inning, picking up his second win of the season for a scoreless two innings of work.
Rose and Passalacqua again led the team in hits with two apiece. Joining them was Gorski, who went 2-for-4 with an RBI.
The Wildcats got great production out of the bottom half of their lineup all day, and especially in game two as the team's 6 through 9 hitters combined for 7 of the team's 12 hits.
With the wins, the Wildcats maintain their 2nd place ranking in the NEAC standings, with their 7-3 record behind only Penn State Abington's mark of 10-2.
SUNY Poly returns home to host Cazenovia in a doubleheader starting at 1:00 pm tomorrow (Sunday) at Peter A. Spina Field.