AUBURNDALE, FLA -- The Fredonia State baseball team rode its pitching staff to a doubleheader sweep of New Paltz on Saturday, completing a three-game sweep of the Hawks. They won the opener 5-3, and came back in the nightcap for a 4-3 win. The Devils also ran their conference record to 6-0.
Sophomore
Sam Cestra took the ball in Game 1, going 5 2/3 innings for the win, while fellow sophomore
Nick Ciraolo swooped in for his first save of the season.
With Ciraolo still warm, he started Game 2, going six innings, with junior Nick Lawlor finishing the game and earning the win. A day earlier,
Luke Kuczewski had gone the distance in the first game.
In their six conference wins, the Devils have only used four different pitchers.
"Nobody wants to come out of the game," said head coach
Matt Palisin. "The guys have physically and mentally prepared themselves to go the distance, and so far, so good. We won't have another conference game for three weeks, so we let them extend themselves and now they have earned some rest."
In Game 1, a seven-inning game, the Devils were down 1-0 in the bottom of the third. They plated four unearned runs. Billy Clifford plated a pair on a two-run single. Two other runs scored on an errant throw on a double-play ball.
Fredonia tacked on an insurance run in the fifth on a
Kevin Yirinec single.
New Paltz got to Cestra in the top of the sixth, plating a pair. With two outs and runners on second and third, Ciraolo struck out the final batter to end the inning. He followed with a 1-2-3 ninth.
Clifford and
Kole Brink each had a pair of hits.
Game 2, scheduled as a nine-inning affair, saw the Devils jump out to a 1-0 lead in the first, when Billy Clifford lifted a sacrifice fly, scoring
Trevor Bradshaw.
It remained that way until the Hawks finally got to Ciraolo for a pair of runs in the top of the sixth. New Paltz tacked on one run off Lawlor in the seventh for a 3-1 lead.
The Devils then rallied in the bottom of the eighth. Tyler Philips singled home Bradshaw. Clifford brought in Fiore with a ground out, and Russ Mistretta singled in Phillips with what would prove to be the game winner.
Lawlor slammed the door with a 1-2-3 ninth.
Fiore had three hits, and Bradshaw and Clifford had a pair of safeties.
New Paltz falls to 3-3, and 0-3 in the SUNYAC.
The Devils now stand at 9-5 overall. They are off until next weekend.
