Baseball team heats up at right time
The Castleton Men’s baseball team put together a nice run at the end of last week to give them a little momentum heading into conference playoffs.Hovering around .500 since April 20, to Castleton sluggers have put together a 5-1 record since April 26, improving their record to 20-17 (7-5 NAC) with two games remaining in the season.
In that stretch, Castleton swept both double-headers against conference foes, Elms College and Becker College.
“The game against Becker on Saturday was probably the best day of baseball we’ve played all year,” Coach Ted Shipley said.
The Spartans beat Becker 6-1 in the opener and then 12-2 in the nightcap. In the first game, Phil Puleo went 3 for 3 with an RBI. Tim Zorio knocked in two RBI while Castleton got great pitching from Tom Cummings, who went the distance allowing only four hits with seven strikeouts.
In the nightcap, the Spartans didn’t need the pitching because they scored 12 runs, four of them coming off a Phil Puleo grand slam in the sixth. Ron Cahill earned the win with five innings of work, allowing six hits and striking out three.
Heading into the playoffs coach Shipley feels his team is Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
“We’re capable of being very good and very bad in the same day,” Shipley said. “We could be classified as a ‘dangerous team’ in playoffs, but we have to play well.