Fall World Series Game 2

Kevin Briggs' drilled a two-run double while Marc Plante and Ross Levinson combined on a six-hitter to lead Gray to a 2-1 victory over Red in Game 2 of the Fall World Series.

Luke Weaver drove in lone Red run with a sacrifice fly.  Kyle Kelly was the tough-luck losing pitcher.

Game 3 is Sunday at 11 a.m. at Chip Cummings Field.

Thanks to PSTV for covering the game today!

Fall World Series Game 1

Here is a quick recap from Game 1


Red 4, Gray 1
Red    210  001 0 - 4 7 1
Gray   010  000 0 - 1 4 3

Doughtie (WP, 7ip, 4h, 1r, 1er, 2bb, 5so)
Burns (LP, 7ip, 7h, 4r, 2er, 8bb, 3so)

Red offense
Shane Houppert 1-2, 2 runs, 2 walks, rbi, stolen base
Mike Doughtie, 2-2
Mat Chavez, 2 hits

Gray offense
Nick Lupo, 2 hits

Scoring
Red 1st - scored first run with two outs on fielding error by second baseman, John Casten followed with two-out RBI single for 2-0 lead.

Red 2nd - Chavez leadoff single, advanced to second when JD Springer reached on fielding error by first baseman.  After a sac bunt by Luke Weaver, Shane Houppert followed with RBI single.

Gray 2nd - With one out bunched three singles together to score a run.  Jimmy Rosario and Nick Lupo singled to left and Mike Vargues hit an RBI single to right.  After a walk to Matt Meunier, Doughtie worked out of trouble with two foul outs.

Red 6th - With two outs, Shane Houppert walked and stole second base.  Brian Latulipe singled to right to score him.

In the bottom of the seventh, Gray had two guys on with two outs, when Jake Oswald hit a ball to deep left that was run down by Matt Chavez.

Game two tomorrow at 11 a.m.

Hurricane Sandy Misses Cards

While Hurricane Sandy was bearing down on New York City and New Jersey, Plattsburgh managed to dodge the majority of the storm. Even though classes were cancelled Monday afternoon, we failed to get any of the predicted power outages or extreme winds. The accompanying rain did however thoroughly soak Chip Cummings Field, making it difficult to practice last week. With home plate sitting under three inches of standing water and mud, we moved batting practice to the outfield and cages, playing simulated games off of the tee in right field. 

By Saturday, the water had still not cleared, so our guys went to work as grounds keepers to get the field ready to play on. With Steve Corea commanding snow shovel in one hand and coffee in the other, we were able to scoop up enough water to put down the industrial strength kitty litter (known as Quick-Dry) and get ready for practice. It took a lot of time and effort, but given the equipment we have, our team could rival any MLB grounds crew in field prep. 

Saturday's practice was topped off by the three inning, three team simulated game. With coach throwing from behind the L-Screen, and each player getting one strike to hack at, several players had a good afternoon. One player stood out in particular at the plate. Tommy Verdino hit one of the most impressive shots I have seen at Chip Cummings Field, hitting the right field fence on the fly against the wind. Tacking on another hit, Tommy helped his team push runs across the plate, earning his spot atop the BBAP list and winning the second ever, Best Player At Practice Award. Congradualtions Tommy Verdino on a good day at the plate. 

Shunske Sugimoto Wins the First Ever BPAP

The last couple weeks have been pretty busy for the Cards. We have been zombies for the Monster Dash, attended films on campus, helped out in Morrisonville Elementary's pizza kit fundraiser, competed with the Alpha Phi sisters in the campus sponsored Fall-Fest, and been having some solid practices.
The Monster Dash made for a long day, but was ultimately a good time. We volunteered our services as "monsters" for the annual 5k. fully clad in face paint and running shoes, the Plattsburgh State baseball team terrorized runners for the full race. With the main objective for the runners being to finish the race with at least one of their "lives" (Flags tucked into a twine belt), it was our objective to try and steal as many flags as possible. Matt Meunier took home the crown of the Monster Dash Monsters, collecting over 50 flags throughout the duration of the race.
We have also been busy on campus, between attending film screenings held by various clubs aorund campus. Not only have we been doing this, but we also teamed up with the sisters of Alpha Phi in Fall Fest. During Fall-Fest, our players competed with the sorority girls in various, fun fall games. The combined effort played against teams made of other fraternities, sororities, athletic teams and campus clubs. Matt Chavez took home the unofficial title of Master Apple Bobber, after successfully retrieving "like 7 or 8 apples on my own" - Chavez.
Practice has been going very well lately. The last three have been highlighted by mini-games between the pitchers and position players. Position players are given a goal to accomplish offensively, while the pitchers are given goals to accomplish defensively. This is an entertaining, but effective practice tool, adding a competitive edge just to make things interesting. After a little bit of a rough start, today's practice went very well. Guys worked hard throughout, and came together to put in a solid days work. For the first time ever, we are creating an award for the best player at practice. The BPAP award as it will be referred to in the future, highlights the player who had an exceptionable practice. Shunske Sugimoto, the man of few words, patrols the outfield with grace and agility while commanding the strike zone from the mound. Playing centerfield today, after throwing on yesterday, Sugimoto came ready to dominate the game of baseball today. Drawing comparisons to his fellow countryman Ichiro, Shun not only beat out an infield single to the first baseman today, but he also made two sliding catches in center field on consecutive plays. Hats off to you Shunske, for setting the standard for what it takes to be named the Best Player At Practice.


Casey Brighton
Senior Captain

Practices Heating Up As Weather Cools Down

The team with Karen Gaffney at the North
Country Down Syndrome Association's
event. 

This year, we have been doing things a little differently in the fall. Instead of having our coaches run practices starting along with the semester, as we have done in the past, we have been having captain led practices. During this time, we have been doing a lot of inter-squad scrimmages, and a lot of community service. A typical week would entail 5-6 days of scrimmages, typically followed by some sort of community service, helping out various non-for-profits and charities on the weekends. (The North Country Down Sydrome Association's Buddy Walk, The Run For Jon, The Alzheimer's Walk, and the Heart Walk just to name a few) Not only has this change given the returners a chance to get some of the rust off before official practices actually start, but it gives all the new guys a chance to get the hang of how we do things here at Plattsburgh State. We have also been training with a strength and conditioning coach, Alanna Darling. She has been great thus far. She really pushes us and constantly reminds us why whatever she is asking us to do will help us on the field. It is helping some of the guys to get into the gym a little more than they might normally, which is only going to help us get better.

Mike Vargues directing traffic at the Heart Walk

Last week started the first official practices with Coach Doorey. We will be practicing outdoors as long as we can brave this lovely North Country weather. Officially practicing three times a week with coach on top of the additional captain's practices the other two weekdays should keep everyone pretty busy and working hard. Coming to aid Coach Kris Doorey in the coaching of the 2012-2013 Cardinals, former Plattsburgh State shortstop, Kris Cauchon joins the coaching staff as an assistant. Another new face this year is Matt Rodovick. Matt will be working as our pitching coach this year as well as helping to recruit future Plattsburgh State players. As always, the bench is graced by the always insightful Gary Butler, who even though his locally legendary (unofficial) step-grandson is no longer on the team. The mixture of familiar faces with a couple new ones should lead to an interesting, entertaining year.
We have a good group of guys, I am really excited to see how this year pans out. As far as the chemistry goes, I feel a strong similarity between this group, and the 2010 team, who if you don't remember went 30-10 and was ranked as high as 18th in the nation. We have a good group of seniors who have been to SUNYAC Playoffs and are itching to go back and get Plattsburgh a SUNYAC title.    We will need to get some contributions from some new guys, but our pitching looks good and our offense should improve over last season's. If we can put it all together when spring rolls around, we should give the 2010 team a run for Plattsburgh's best season ever.



-Casey Brighton
2012-2013 Senior Captain

New Paltz and Cortland Weekends

New Paltz traveled to Chip Cummings Field for the home opener against the Cards on March 23rd. When I first saw this game on our schedule I thought that there was no way that we would be playing. As I recall, last year we had to reschedule our New Paltz games because of weather. When we finally made up the games there was still snow on the ground this year was completely different with a relatively dry winter. This was the first conference series for the Cards since winning two against Fredonia. In the opening game the Cards faced last years SUNYAC pitcher of the year Chris Chismar. Chismar didn’t lose many games last year but we were lucky enough to give him a loss. With the success that we had last year against him we tried to bring the same mindset into this game. Chismar typically strikes out a lot of people and our goal was to work the count in each at bat to quickly raise his pitch count. Bobby Piser took the challenge of facing one of our conference best by pitching a solid 5 2/3 innings giving up 2 runs. When Piser exited the game so did Chismar with the game locked at 2-2. Mike Doughtie once again came in and shut the door on New Paltz by pitching the next 4 1/3 scoreless innings. It wasn’t until the bottom of the 10th when the Cards, led by Casey Brighton, won the game with a walk off single. In the second game Tyler Green took the mound pitching a complete game. Tyler kept New Paltz off balanced throughout the game but the offense failed to provide him any run support as New Paltz won 5-0. The rubber match wasn’t much better offensively, for much of the game it seemed like our bats would never wake up. Going into the bottom of the 8th we trailed 2-1 and with the help of Mike Vargues and Pedro Gonzalez’s RBI singles we took the lead 3-2. Brian Burns was then handed the ball to go out and close the game for us. He went 1-2-3 in the 9th for the save and more importantly a series win.

The following weekend we traveled to the nationally ranked team Cortland in hopes to prove a point. Last year Cortland took three heartbreakers from us, winning all three games by two or less runs. History was not on our side as we headed down seeing as how Plattsburgh State has never won at Cortland. Our goal was to show Cortland that we could play with them and that we plan on seeing them in playoffs. In the first game, Cortland got off to a fast start scoring three runs in the first. That was plenty enough support for starter Aaron Schuldt as he pitched 7 innings, striking out 14 batters. After the first game Coach Doorey stressed that Friday was over and done with and that tomorrow was a new day. Senior Tyler Greene was handed the ball on Saturday, pitching the game of his life. Throughout the whole game he continued to keep Cortland hitters guessing. The only thing he needed was run support from his offense and he got that in the 5th when we struck for two runs. Two runs typically is not enough against a powerhouse like Cortland but Tyler finished them off pitching a complete game shut out. The final score was 2-0 making this the first time Plattsburgh has won at Cortland State. The final game on Saturday wasn’t pretty, as I’d like to say we pissed off all of the Cortland players as they pounded 18 hits wining the game 14-1.

After these two weekends the Cards took a big step in positioning for the playoffs. With half of the conference games in the book we need to continue to play good baseball. That means the bats need to wake up to take the pressure off of our pitchers. The next two weeks will determine our fate for the playoffs as we face Brockport and Oneonta. We hope to see all of our fans and parents for senior weekend against Brockport. Wish us luck as we battle to get back into the playoffs!

Florida Trip

Like every spring break to Florida the mindset is to get rid of all the cob-webs and get ready for the conference games. This year’s trip was very different then in the past because we needed to prepare ourselves much quicker. For the first time we had three conference games in Florida, and our main goal was to win those three games against Fredonia. We opened our season against Baruch College, and right off the bat we had our first heart breaker. From the beginning the Cardinal bats were hot and it looked like we were in mid season form. In the first inning we jumped out to an early 2-0 lead. Baruch countered with a five run inning, but we followed their attack with a six runs. It wasn’t until late in the game were Baruch scored five unanswered runs to win 10-8. This was a tough opening game for us all, but it showed us that you can never let your foot off the pedal. Our bats were on fire early in the game and then we got satisfied with our lead which let Baruch steal a win from us. In the night cap the Cards had a strong pitching performance from Bobby Piser. He threw a complete game and shut the door on Baruch. This was a huge win for us; Bobby stepped up and made sure we were going to split on opening day.

The next few days we played against St. Josephs, Gettysburg and Principia College. The Cards once again salvaged a split against a strong St. Joes team. The first game we were dominated by St. Joe’s starting pitcher and fell 8-1. In the second game we responded by clubbing 16 hits, 5 different cards had multiple hits and Marc Plante threw five solid innings. This was plenty enough offense to get the win as the final score was 12-5. The following day we dropped two games against Gettysburg College. Once again the first game was a heart breaking loss. We took the lead in the 6th inning and then gave it back in the 7th to lose the game 5-4. The second game wasn’t a pretty one as we lost 9-1; I truly believe the pain from the first game carried over to the next game. The final warm up games before our conference series against Fredonia was Principia. We had a great performance by Kyle Kelly pitching a complete game and giving up no earned runs. Sadly our bats were dead and most of us didn’t look awake for the game. We ended up losing a very winnable game 2-1. After this loss coach Doorey had seen enough from the starters and decided to give the new guys and chance. This worked out very well for the Cards as the new guys took full advantage of their opportunity winning the game 11-8.

In our first conference game you could feel the tension in the air because we all knew how important these games are. Bobby Piser was given the ball and he pitched 7 innings before leaving the game with a 3-3 tie. The game would stay locked at 3-3 until Fredonia exploded for 7 runs in the final two innings. After dropping the first game to Fredonia, it was a must that we won the next game. By winning the next game it would still put us in the position to win the series. In Game 2, Tyler Greene pitched a complete game only allowing 4 hits. The rest of the team rode off his dominate pitching performance by scoring eight runs and wining 8-1. In the Game 3 rubber match we jumped out to a 6-2 lead before Fredonia managed to crawl its way back into the game. The game was a nail bitter all the way to till the end until we scrapped across two late runs to beat Fredonia 8-7. Mike Doughtie pitched four scoreless innings in relief holding Fredonia off giving us the win. Like every conference series the stress and nerves were high and it was great to see that under all of this pressure we could perform and win the series.

After winning two out of three from Fredonia the Cards ended the Florida trip winning six straight. The final two days we swept Lakeland and Lasell College. The trip ended on a high note as coach Doorey collected his 200th win. I’d also like to congratulate Jake Oswald, Tommy Verdino, Mike Mulvihill, Pedro Gonzalez, Chris Pescetti, Mike Vargues, Matt Meunier, Jimmy Rosario, Brain Latulipe and Nick Lupo on their first career hit. Florida was fun and exciting and I believe that this year’s trip was a successful one. We had our hiccups and mistakes but that’s the whole point of traveling to Florida. We were lucky enough to be put in situations which will help us later in the season. Our hopes are that we will learn from our mistakes in Florida and be ready for them in conference play. Thanks for following us and I hope to see you in the stands cheering LETS GO CARDS!

200th Win

Today was a big day for coach Doorey as he reached his 200th career win with Plattsburgh. His 199th and 200th win today come easy today as both games were nail bitters. In the first game the Cards were up 6-2 before giving up four runs in the in the 6th inning. The next 7 innings would be scoreless, yes that is correct it wasn’t until the 14th inning until the cards pulled off a walk off hit. In the second game the Cardinal bats were quite cold but thanks to a great pitching performance by Corey Grossman two runs were enough to win the game. This was the first career win for Corey and I’d like to tip my hat to him for stepping up and pitching a solid 6 innings today.

Not many knew that today was coach Doorey’s 200th career win and that’s why I’d like to dedicate this blog post him. He has been with this program since it restarted and has put Plattsburgh on the map. I’ve had the pleasure to play under coach for the past four years and I can personally say it has been the best years of my baseball career. We’ve had our ups and downs during that span but he has stuck by our side the whole time. His philosophy of getting the most out of his players has got him the success that he has had. When he is on the field he is one of the most competitive individuals that I’ve ever met, and when he’s off the field he is one of the kindest. People who don’t know coach off the field miss out on what he does for all of his players. At any point of the day coach is always one call away and will be there for all of his players. I truly believe that the relationships he has with all of us is one of the many reasons why he won his 200th game today. With that, I’d personally like that congratulate coach on his big day and wish him only the best in the future.

A full blog on the Florida trip will come soon after we get home on Saturday. Thanks for following and wish us luck on our last two games in Florida.

Week Four

Week Four is now complete and the weather has finally caught up to us. I must have jinxed it by talking about how weird the weather has been this winter. Last week we had our first snow storm dropping a lovely six inches of snow. Now we are looking at another five to six inches this week. On the bright side the forecast for Fort Myers today was 88 degrees and sunny so Florida can’t come any sooner. Not being able to go outside this past week allowed all position players to get plenty of hacks in. If you weren’t facing a pitcher you were lucky enough face coach Doorey in the cage. No he wasn’t pitching, he was behind the pitching machine feeding curve balls and making most hitters look a tad silly. I think he was having a little more fun watching us then we were trying to hit. Defense once again was a main focus of the week. We continued to work on run downs, 1st and 3rd defenses, as well as bunt defenses. All of these situational drills are extremely important for our first games because from my past experiences these are the first things we, as a team, slip up on. It’s the little things like bunt defenses and situations that we are going to have to excel in this season to succeed.

With Florida being only one week away you can see the excitement of the freshman’s faces. Then again you can probably see it on all of our faces because I know, myself included that all the older guys are excited that they will be stepping on a plane not a bus come Wednesday. Come Friday I hope the new guys can keep up the excitement and try to push aside the nerves. The first game of the season is always nerve racking but we are going to have to look past that and strive for a win that Friday. Wish us luck and I hope to see lots of cardinal fans down there. On a final note I believe coach Doorey is only 7 or 8 wins away from his career 200th win at Plattsburgh. So if it’s a successful Florida trip coach will be coming back with that accomplishment under his belt

Week Three

Week three is now in the books for the Cards and it’s certainly been an unusual spring training so far. I’ve never experienced a winter quite like the one we are having here in Plattsburgh. In the past, we were lucky if we went outside three times before heading to Florida. Two of those three times typically would have been Coach Doorey forcing us outside while the snow was still flying. Doing this would get us prepared to what the regular season really feels like in Plattsburgh. Nothing like that can be said this year that’s for sure; once again we had three practices outside this week. All week the coaching staff stressed on the importance of defense and the affects it can have on our season. Coach Doorey emphasized “that we are only going to be as good as our defense”, and that one of our goals should be to be the best defensive team in the country. With that you can only image what practice must have looked like. Infielders worked on ground balls to our left and right focusing on doing every little step correctly. The outfielders focused on the significance of hitting all their cuts and the proper techniques on fielding fly balls. The pitchers continued working hard on establishing their fastballs early in the count. When doing this it allows the pitchers to be more effective and it takes more pressure off of them. The overall goal is to have our pitchers working ahead and our fielders playing the best defense they can. When you put those two together, you can guarantee that you will always be in every game.

With only two weeks remaining until Florida a sense of seriousness can be felt in the gym. Everybody is working hard and to top it off Coach Bulter has recently pulled out his coffee lid hitting drill. When this happens we all know the regular season must be really close. 17 days remain until our first game and there are still many opportunities out there for starting positions. As I say each week the new comers continue to improve, and being a senior as I am it’s really nice to see these kids improve so much on a weekly basis. Don’t be shocked to see new faces on opening day because all of newcomers have worked hard to get ready for March 9th. With that I’d like to give a shout out to two of the new guys and that’s Brain Latulipe and Mike Vargues. Both men come to practice each day, work hard, listen, and improve day in and out. Plattsburgh State Baseball has a bright future ahead of them and it will take all nine of the freshman to continue the success of this program. Only 16 days now till departure, Hope to see you all in Florida!

Former Cards now coachinghttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

One of the joys of being a head coach for so long (13 seasons, 10 at Plattsburgh) is watching the players you coached become coaches themselves.

Here are the former modern-era Cardinals that are now coaching:

Mike Bergman, SUNY Plattsburgh, Assistant Coach
Billy Davis, SUNY Plattsburgh, Assistant Coach
Matt Kelley, Union College, Assistant Coach
Zack Welch, Sul Ross State University (Texas), Graduate Assistant Coach
Matt Burns, SUNY Oneonta, Assistant Coach

Week Two

Week two has now come and gone for the baseball team. This week we were introduced to “Timed Mile Tuesday’s” and “What the Heck Beep Test Wednesdays”. Wednesday turned into a competition beep test because you had to beat your unknown competitor. The victors would happily move onto hitting stations while the losers would stay and run another test. The unlucky ones were left running four beep tests. As the week progressed so did the drills, pitchers continued to work on their arm strength while the outfielder’s and infielders were once again lucky enough to go outside. It was surprisingly in the 40’s again in the tundra of Plattsburgh and the coaches took full advantage of it. We were able to go over game like situations outside which are usually very difficult to do inside. Having these outside practices are great because it gives us a chance to throw the ball across the diamond and let’s face it, there’s only so much you can do in the gym.

As the weekend came the pitchers were ready to throw live for the second time this year. Instead of the strict fastball only schedule like last week the pitchers could now throw their full arsenal. We were lucky enough to have an umpire join us on Saturday giving us all the most game like situation we could have at this time. Overall the week was very productive; it’s nice to see the freshman grow from week to week because we are really going to need them this spring. Florida is coming fast and hopefully in three weeks we will be in full stride and fully prepared for our first games.

Welch traded to Abline

Former SUNY Plattsburgh standout Zack Welch was recently traded by the Alpine Cowboys of the Pecos League to the Abilene Prairie Dogs of the North American League.

Welch batted .336 last season with five doubles, a triple, a home run, 26 runs batted in, and 17 stolen bases for Alpine.

Welch has played independent league baseball for the past three seasons with Texarkana (Continental League, 2009), Alpine (Continental League, 2010; Pecos League, 2011) and Shreveport-Bossier (American Association, 2010).

Welch is currently is his first season as an assistant coach at Sul Ross State University in Alpine, TX.

15 Baseball Cards That Could Get You Through College

Came across an article that some of you might enjoy!

http://www.bestcollegesonline.com/blog/2012/02/07/15-baseball-cards-that-could-get-you-through-college/

Week One

The first week of practice was a welcome back to reality for us all. As to be expected the first couple of days were used to shake off the cob webs. If you happened to walk into practice on Monday or Tuesday you would have seen something that looked more like a track practice. There wasn’t the sound of the bat connecting with the ball but the sound of 32 guys gasping for air. Monday also included the first competition for the team, a conditioning contest was held for the first time against the Lacrosse team. It wasn’t a pretty first game for us; we were out manned and dominated by Lacrosse. With that I’d like to tip my hat to them, they handed us our first loss of the season. This event definitely opened the eyes to many players, were going to have to out work teams to be the best we can this year.

As the week continued we finally pulled out the gloves and bats. Position players were taking as many hacks as they could, while pitchers were preparing to throw live later in the week. When Friday came along every pitcher had a chance to face a live batter for the first time this season. Pitchers were on a strict fastball only schedule, while the hitters practiced situational hitting. As the week concluded you could see the affects of a productive week of practice. Everyone seemed to be hobbling or grabbing some part of their body that was sore. Week one was a good one for the baseball team and its hard to believe that in a little more then a month we will be headed to Florida. If you haven’t heard yet we will be flying to Florida this year. The newcomers don’t know what they are missing out on with that joyful 27 hour bus ride. I can personally say that after making that trip three times in my career I will not miss that ride.

Now that the first week has past us, we are going to have to make some big strides in the next few weeks. With the loss of five starters, the newcomers are going to have to fill in some big shoes. I’m excited to see what we can do this season and with everyone on board we can definitely make it back into the Playoffs. Week two is now in action and with some of this warm winter weather we got a chance to get outside. Lets cross our fingers and hope the warm weather continues. We can now let the countdown begin, 32 days till our first Game. Go Cards!

Two Cards named Pre-Season Players to Watch

Pat Shaughnessy and Tyler Greene of the Plattsburgh State baseball team have been named two of the 2012 NCAA Division III Players to Watch by Collegiate Baseball earlier this month. Players selected to the preseason list are chosen by Division III coaches from across the country.

Shaughnessy, who is entering his final season with as the Cardinals’ second baseman, earned First-Team All-SUNYAC honors following the 2011 season. The Plattsburgh native led Plattsburgh with 21 runs batted in – 13 of which came in conference play. Shaughnessy was second among regular players with a .312 batting average and scored a team-high 26 runs. He hit eight doubles, two triples and two home runs in his junior year.

Following last season, Greene was a recipient of an American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA)/Rawlings Gold Glove Award. A pitcher from Fort Edward, N.Y., Greene finished the year with a 4-4 record and a 2.08 earned run average. He started more games (9) than any other Cardinal pitcher in 2011, holding opponents to a .221 batting average. Greene did not commit an error in the field throughout 56 1/3 innings of work.

Shaughnessy and Greene are two of 13 State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) players to be named to this year’s list.

The Cardinal baseball team will get the 2012 season underway with a 15-game trip to Florida beginning Mar. 9.