By JOHN CORYER
FORT MYERS, Fla. — The Plattsburgh State men's baseball team has allowed seven runs in each of its first three games in Florida.
No problem.
The Cardinals (7-1), following up on Sunday night's 10-7 win over the University of Scranton to begin the trip, continued to swing the bats well with a 9-7 and 14-7 doubleheader sweep of Bethel Monday in the Gene Cusic Collegiate Classic.
"It's exciting to get two wins — Bethel is a pretty good team," said Plattsburgh State head coach Kris Doorey. "We hit the ball hard all day and got contributions from a lot of people.
"Our starting pitching struggled today, but our offense picked us up and we got pretty good relief pitching."
However, there was nothing easy about the first game.
The Royals scored four runs in the bottom of the third inning off Plattsburgh State starter Matt O'Leary and Bethel starter Matt Johnson blanked the Cardinals over the first four.
But, the Cardinals rallied for six runs in the top of the fifth, with the help of two costly Bethel errors.
The first Royals' error of the inning helped load the bases for the Cardinals and Tory Bouyea cleared the sacks with a three-run double. Donny Coolidge followed with a RBI single. Plattsburgh State loaded the bases again and an infield error, with two out, allowed Plattsburgh State to score two more runs and take a 6-4 advantage.
"We started to roll offensively after the first error of the inning," Doorey said.
O'Leary, however, surrendered two runs in the bottom of the inning to tie it and was relieved by Tyler Greene.
The Cardinals then hit the ball very hard while regaining the lead, this time for good, with three runs in the sixth. Bouyea rapped a RBI triple, Coolidge a RBI double and Andrew Baio a RBI double to account for the three runs.
Greene, who went three innings for the win, allowed four hits and no earned runs. In the bottom of the seventh, Bethel scored an unearned run on Ryan Doheny's RBI single and had runners on second and third, with one out, But, Greene, got a strikeout and fly ball to left to preserve the win.
The Cardinals had 10 hits in all, with Bouyea getting a double, triple and four RBI, and Coolidge a single, double and two RBI.
The second game wasn't nearly as dramatic.
The Cardinals scored four runs in the first and added eight in the second for a 12-1 lead.
Plattsburgh State starter Corey Johnston allowed one run over the first three innigs, but couldn't get out of the fourth when Bethel tallied five runs. Casey Mohrien then came in and surrendered three hits and one run in going the final 3.1 innings for the victory.
"We couldn't get Johnston through the fourth," Doorey said.
Andy Gooch led the Cardinals' 17-hit attack by going four-for-four, with four runs and three RBI. Casey Brighton, Anthony Presto, Danny Roeser, Bouyea, Greg Larnerd and Pat Shaughnessy all added two hits apiece, with Brighton driving in three runs and Bouyea and Shaughnessy, two apiece. Shaughnessy rapped two hits, including a two-run homer, in the second inning alone.
"Gooch has been struggling and it was nice to see him get five hits on the day," Doorey said. "Shaughnessy has also been struggling and he broke out of it in the second game.
"Casey Brighton got a big pinch hit in the first game and got his first start behind the plate in the second game and got two hits. And, Greg Larnerd got a start at first base in the second game and also got a couple of hits.
"Greene and Mohrien both settled things down when they came in."
The Cardinals have a doubleheader scheduled for a 2 p.m. start today against Lakeland College.
"We want to keep rolling." Doorey said. "The weather is warmer down here than it was in Myrtle Beach and the hitters are putting the bat on the ball better."
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Plattsburgh 9, Bethel 7
Plattsburgh 000 063 0 — 9 10 2
Bethel 004 020 1 — 7 12 2
O'Leary, Greene (5) and Russo, Brighton (5). Johnson, D.Anderson (6) and E. Anderson. WP- Greene. LP- D. Anderson. 2B- Bouyea (PSU), Coolidge (PSU), Baio (PSU), Tokar (B) 2, B. Anderson. 3B- Bouyea (PSU).
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Plattsburgh 14, Bethel 7
Bethel 010 500 1 — 7 10 2
Plattsburgh 480 101 x — 14 17 0
Dent, Rowley (5), Nichols (6) and Ja. Slick. Johnston, Mohrien (4) and Brighton. WP- Mohrien. LP- Dent. 2B- Roeser (PSU), Gooch (PSU). HR- Shaughnessy (PSU), E. Anderson (B).
