BOXSCORE

Senior Max Zimmerman (East Amherst, NY/Williamsville North) moved into a tie for second place on The College at Brockport's all-time home run list, as the Green and Gold continued their impressive start to the 2011 season with a 11-0 shutout of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Tuesday afternoon at Chain of Lakes Stadium in Winter Haven, Fla.

 

Zimmerman's two-run shot to left-center field in the first inning was his first of the season, and 18th of his career. With the blast, Zimmerman, a third-team All-Region pick during his junior year, tied Rob Gladwell (2004) for second place on Brockport's all-time home run list.

 

Zimmerman, who belted eight home runs in 2010, trails only Hall of Famer Jim Voutour (20 HR's) in the school's record books.

 

Brockport (8-2) struck first, scoring two first-inning runs. After sophomore Mike Weakley (Liverpool, NY/Liverpool) reached on an error, Zimmerman came to the plate and blasted his home run, putting Brockport up 2-0.

 

Sophomore James Bardenett (Syracuse, NY/Henninger) made the early lead stand with a dominant, complete-game victory.

 

Making his third start of the season, the right-hander had his most complete outing, holding RPI (3-3) scoreless on just three hits over nine innings. He struck out a career-high 10 batters, two better than his previous best of eight, accomplished during a 4-0 win over Oswego April 11, 2010.

 

“My slider was really good today, I threw it a lot more than I usually do and it was just on,” said Bardenett, who had to leave his last start against Gwynedd Mercy (PA) after just 2 1/3 innings after being struck in the hand.

 

“What was really clicking was (catcher) Mike Goldstein and I were on the same page the whole game. We chose our spots, got in a rhythm and it worked out really well. … I'm kind of surprised (by the strikeouts), I don't strike out as many as the other guys on the team, but today I hit my spots and they couldn't hit the ball.”

 

While Bardenett breezing through RPI's lineup — he retired the first eight batters he faced and 16 out of 18 at one point — Brockport pushed its lead to 4-0 in the top of the fourth.

 

Senior Zach Prentice (Auburn, NY/Auburn) led off with a single, advanced to second on a single from freshman Kyle Tracy (Plainview, NY/Bethpage) and moved to third on a fly out. After Tracy stole second, senior Mike Goldstein (Slingerlands, NY/Guilderland) plated them both with a two-run double.

 

In the fifth, Zimmerman doubled and scored to extend the lead to 5-0 when junior Corey Booth (Middletown, NY/Minisink Valley) delivered a two-out, RBI single.

 

Brockport tacked on a run in the eighth inning, and capitalized on three of RPI's five errors to push across four ninth-inning runs to finish off the scoring. Weakley had an RBI single in both the eighth and ninth innings for Brockport.

 

Bardenett retired the final nine batters he faced. He struck out two batters during the second, fifth and seventh innings.

 

Brockport's offense hit 5 for 12 and scored five runs with two outs. Weakley had four hits while Goldstein finished 2 for 4 for the Golden Eagles, who pounded out 13 hits, their fifth time getting 10-plus hits this year.

 

“We bounced back,” said Justin Beach, Brockport's fourth-year head coach. “Yesterday we left a lot of runners on base, so a lot of our focus today was to put bats on the ball, and we had some guys make some big two-out hits for us. We took advantage of their mistakes, and that's a sign of a good team, cashing in on the opposition's mistakes.”

 

The Golden Eagles return to action against Spalding (KY) University at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday afternoon.