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QUINTIN JAMES
Staff Writer
Going into last week, the Fredonia men’s baseball team had a great chance to climb back into the playoff race with a series on the road against Brockport. The team looked to gain possession of the last playoff spot for SUNYACs.
Sophomore Bailey Gauthier said the mentality of the team is to leave the hypotheticals out and focus on what’s happening in the present moment.
“The mindset is to take one game at a time now. We have to remember that we can only control the things that we can control. We will worry about the scenarios for us to make SUNYACs after the job is done. The job is to take this Plattsburgh series game by game and sweep.”
With the confidence of the team rising and its play improving, the players looked to get some wins to improve their record. They started off the week against Medaille at home before heading to Brockport to play a three-game set against a rival on the road.
Against Medaille, the Blue Devils had another walk off victory as they came back to win 7-6.
After being down 3-0 in the first inning, they fought back and scored two in the ninth to save their season against a lowly non-conference opponent. The Blue Devils were led by senior outfielder Quinn Danahy who had three RBIs on the day and drove in the winning runs in the ninth.
Sophomore pitcher Steve Zaprowski earned the save, going four innings in relief while junior third baseman Liam Kelly had four hits to help the cause.
After that important victory, the Blue Devils headed to Brockport to start a three game series. This was an important series for the Blue Devils as they could’ve gained a lot of ground in the conference standings.
Game one of the series saw the Blue Devils get 13 hits and score six runs, but the pitching couldn’t contain the Brockport offense as they allowed 19 hits and they fell 11-6.
Danahy led the Blue Devils with three hits as they looked to respond in games two and three.
Games two and three came in a doubleheader and the Blue Devils split the games. In game one of the doubleheader, the Blue Devils won a thriller in extra innings by the score of 5-4. The game went back and forth until Kelly gave the Blue Devils the lead when he singled with the bases loaded in the 12th inning. Sophomore pitcher Bailey Gauthier closed the game in the bottom half as the Blue Devils came from behind to win another long game.
On offense the Blue Devils were led by senior shortstop Kyle Sherman with four hits and Danahy who had two hits.
Game two was similar to game one as Fredonia and Brockport went back and forth until the end of the game. This time, the Blue Devils came out on the short end of the stick, losing 6-5 on a walk off single that was just out the reach of Zaprowski.
After being down 2-0 in the fourth inning, the Blue Devils scored two runs in the top of the fifth to tie it. They would go back and forth until the top of the ninth inning where the Blue Devils tied it on their final out.
This game was a killer for the Blue Devils’ playoff hopes as their chances went from slim to slimmer.
The Blue Devils will now have to sweep Plattsburgh next week and get Brockport to sweep New Paltz in order to make SUNYAC playoffs. Gauthier also added that it will take a team effort to sweep Plattsburgh.
“I think we just have to keep playing the way we’ve been playing these past 10 games as we’ve won seven out of the last 10,” said Gauthier. “We have been playing great baseball as of late and just have to keep plugging away. It’s been a lot of team effort wins, using everybody on our roster and that’s what will be key during this upcoming series.”