BOXSCORE
The College at Brockport's baseball team returned home from its Spring Training trip and continued its winning ways against RIT Sunday afternoon.
Brockport (11-3), which went 8-2 during its trip to Florida, picked up its fifth win in its last six games, defeating the Tigers 10-6 Sunday at Webster's Field of Dreams turf park.
Freshman Kyle Tracy (Plainview, NY/Bethpage) and junior Anthony Siracusa (Auburn, NY/Auburn) each drove in a pair of runs, and Brockport broke open a 6-4 contest by scoring three runs in the sixth and seventh innings to pull away from RIT (3-8).
Senior Max Keado (Troy, NY/Catholic Central) led the Brockport attack, going 4-for-6 at the plate.
“Max bats at the top of our lineup, and when he's getting on base and giving us baserunners to start an inning, when he's being that sparkplug, that helps us out a lot,” said Justin Beach, Brockport's fourth-year head coach.
“Max did a great job today, he's been playing great all year long for us.”
All nine Brockport's starters recorded stolen bases as Brockport swiped a season-high 12 bases. Entering Sunday, Brockport was 20-for-26 on stolen base attempts, but the Golden Eagles went a perfect 12-for-12 on stolen base attempts against RIT. Sophomores Mike Weakley (Liverpool, NY/Liverpool) and Jake Coleman (Hilton, NY/Hilton) each stole two bases for Brockport.
Tracy doubled down the left field line in the top of the second to stake Brockport to a 2-0 lead.
"We had a lot of runners on base and drew 11 walks, and we just had our guys come up with big hits with guys in scoring position,” Beach said. “Kyle Tracy cashed in big-time with that clutch hit with runners on second and third. That was a huge hit for us.”
Following a scoreless third, the Golden Eagles used aggressive base-running and timely hitting to push the lead to 6-0 in the fourth.
Sophomore Stephen Boronczyk (Syracuse, NY/Corcoran) led off the inning with a single to right-center field, but was out at second on Tracy's fielder's choice. Tracy then stole second, senior Tom McCormick (Utica, NY/Utica Notre Dame) walked, and Keado singled to load the bases.
Weakley pushed the lead to 3-0 on a fielder's choice, and after Weakley stole second and senior Max Zimmerman (East Amherst, NY/Williamsville North) walked, Siracusa delivered the big hit. Siracusa laced a two-run single into right-center field, plating McCormick and Weakley for a 5-0 lead. That hit chased RIT starter Walt Roman (3 2/3 innings pitched, seven hits, six runs), but the Green and Gold weren't done yet.
Executing a double-steal, Siracusa stole second wile Zimmerman stole home with the fourth run of the inning, and also Brockport's fourth stolen base in the frame.
RIT answered back, scoring one run in the bottom of the fourth and three more in the fifth to pull within two, 6-4, but Brockport scored two unearned runs on a throwing error and a wild pitch in the sixth. Keado extended the lead to 9-4 on an RBI single down the left-field line.
A two-run single in the bottom of the eighth closed the gap to 9-6 before Brockport tacked on a run in the ninth. Junior Mike Degregory (Saratoga Springs, NY/Schuylerville) led off the inning with a single, stole second, advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored on another wild pitch.
Junior starter Aaron Tilley (Troy, NY/Troy) allowed four runs on five hits over 4 2/3 innings pitched and struckout five of the first nine batters he faced to earn the win.
Brockport returns to action Saturday with a double-header against Cortland in its State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) opener.
