MALDEN, MA: SUNY Cobleskill baseball dropped both games of Sunday's regular season-closing doubleheader at Pine Banks Park, falling to Lesley University 6-5 and 7-3. The Fighting Tigers close the regular season 19-19 overall and 16-8 in the North Atlantic Conference. Cobleskill now turns its attention to the NAC Tournament.
Game 1: The Fighting Tigers led for most of the afternoon but could not hold on in the final two innings, falling 6-5 in a game that featured eight Cobleskill hits and a clean defensive day.
Cobleskill struck first in the top of the first.
Jeffrey Gutierrez singled and advanced to third on a pitcher's error, and
Ryan Lansing plated him with a sacrifice fly to make it 1-0.
Logan Firment followed with a triple to put the Tigers right back in scoring position, but was stranded to end the inning.
The Tigers extended their lead with a run in the fourth on a
Cole Platt RBI single that scored
Zach Papanikolatos, and added another in the fifth when Firment singled home Gutierrez, who had led off the frame with a ground-rule double. Cobleskill pushed the advantage to 5-1 in the sixth as
Anthony Sergi singled home
Troy Enamait and Gutierrez followed with an RBI single up the middle to cap the two-run frame.
Lesley fought back with two runs in the bottom of the sixth — capped by a solo home run and a sacrifice fly — then walked off with three in the seventh on a two-run single by Payne Johnson that ended the game.
Game 2: A six-run Lesley fifth inning proved insurmountable, but the Fighting Tigers showed character with a three-run seventh in their final at-bat of the regular season.
The game was scoreless through three before Cobleskill's defense was undone by errors in the fourth, allowing an unearned Lesley run to score on a wild pitch. The damage compounded in the fifth when a bases-loaded triple cleared the bases for three, a run-scoring single extended the lead to five, and a two-run double made it 7-0 before Cobleskill could respond.
The Tigers saved their best inning for last.
Logan Firment opened the seventh with a single up the middle, and
Korin Laurilla followed with a hit through the right side to put two aboard.
Cole Platt laced a two-run double down the left field line, scoring Firment and sending Laurilla to third.
Brandon Rotman singled to left to plate Laurilla, and
Jeffrey Gutierrez added an RBI single to bring it to 7-3, with the tying run still on deck before the inning ended.
Up Next: SUNY Cobleskill closes the regular season 19-19 overall and 16-8 in the North Atlantic Conference. The Fighting Tigers now await the NAC Tournament bracket. Tournament information and scheduling will be announced by the conference.
