MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. — It turned out to be a very encouraging trip to open the 2010 season for the Plattsburgh State men's baseball team.
The Cardinals won two games Saturday — 3-2 over Wilkes University and 8-4 over Penn State-Abington — to close out a 4-1 journey to Myrtle Beach.
"We're pretty excited," said Plattsburgh State head coach Kris Doorey. "We lost our first game on the trip and it could have went south in a hurry.
"We didn't get as much offense as we usually do. But, we played great defense and got solid pitching. We were also able to win three regional games."
The Cardinals' win over Wilkes was the most exciting game on the trip.
Plattsburgh State took a 2-1 lead in the fourth when Danny Roeser singled, Tory Bouyea singled, Donny Coolidge singled in a run, Andrew Baio bunted for a hit and Crockett Pack added a sacrifice fly.
The Cardinals added an important run in the eighth when Anthony Presto singled, took second on a bunt, third on a ground ball and scored on a wild pitch.
The big story of the game was the pitching of Dan Tracy, who allowed six hits, walked one and fanned 11 before running into trouble in the eighth.
"Tracy was awesome," Doorey said. "He had very good stuff and finally ran out of gas. He had to close last night's game. Dan was unbelievable today."
Wilkes, down 3-1, got two hits off Tracy in the eighth, but reliever Brian Burns got out of the inning with a line drive doubleplay to third baseman Donny Coolidge.
Burns then got into trouble in the bottom of the ninth as Wilkes got two walks and two singles to score a run after Burns had retired the leadoff batter. But, with the bases and one out, Roeser came in and induced a 6-4-3 doubleplay to preserve the exciting victory.
"Wilkes won 29 games last year and it was good for us mentally to win that game," Doorey said.
Against Penn State-Abington, Presto, Bouyea, Baio, Pat Shaughnessy and Mike Doughtie led the Cardinals with two hits apiece. Presto, Baio and Doughtie drove in two runs apiece, while Shaughnessy scored three runs.
Plattsburgh State starter Andrew Price worked into the fifth inning and Casey Mohrien picked up the win in relief. Matt Seymour went the final two innings for the save.
"It was Price's debut and he was cruising — he had six strikeouts in the first three innings," Doorey said. "But, he hit a tough spot in the fourth and came out after having problems in the fifth.
"Mohrien went 2.2 innings to keep us in the lead and Seymour came in with runners on second and third, with nobody out, in the eighth inning with us ahead, 7-4. He got a comebacker to the mound, a strikeout and another comebacker to the mound to get out of the inning unscored upon.
"We used three freshmen pitchers to win the game and I was excited about that," Doorey said.
Plattsburgh State 3, Wilkes 2
Plattsburgh 000 200 010 — 3 5 1
Wilkes 010 000 001 — 2 8 1
Tracy, B. Burns (8), Roeser (9) and Russo. Flecknoe, Carling (8) and Dengler. WP- Tracy. LP- Flecknoe. Sv- Roeser.
Plattsburgh 8, PSU-Abington 4
PSU-Abington 000 220 000 — 4 7 3
Plattsburgh 022 102 01x — 8 12 0
Schiavone, Chiaverelli (6) and Nicholson. Price, Mohrien (5), Seymour (8) and M. Burns, Brighton (9). WP- Mohrien. LP- Schiavone. Sv- Seymour. 2B- Mcfarlane (A), Coolidge (PSU). 3B- Doughtie (PSU).
