PLATTSBURGH — The margin of victory in Thursday’s Section VII Class A baseball championship game was a surprise to some — maybe many.
But a strong performance by Plattsburgh High and a rare off game by Peru resulted in the Hornets’ 12-1 win at Chip Cummings Field.
Top-seeded Plattsburgh, which also won the CVAC Division I title this year, added the A crown after winning the championship in Class B a season ago.
Winning pitcher Warren Miller went the distance and three Hornets had three hits each
“Honestly, I couldn’t get to sleep thinking about the game,” PHS coach Pat Shaughnessy said. “And then we fell behind, 1-0, in the second inning and I never like falling behind in any game.
“But we responded well.”
Indeed they did.
Second-seeded Peru (13-4), coming off an exciting 3-2, eight-inning win over third-seeded Beekmantown on Monday, took a 1-0 lead in the second when Jake Frechette led off with a walk and eventually scored on Brennan Peters’ sacrifice fly.
But everything unraveled for the Nighthawks in the bottom of the inning when PHS scored seven runs off starter Frechette, who had held the Hornets scoreless in the first.
Andre Anderson, who has been hitting the ball well of late, had a single and two-run single in the inning alone. Dom DeAngelo added a two-run single and Braeden Calkins a RBI hit. There were also five walks in the inning, one intentional.
“We were able to break it open in the second inning,” Calkins said. “We know we can hit the ball.”
The 7-1 deficit was too deep a hole for the Nighthawks to climb out of with the way Miller was pitching.
In seven innings, Miller struck out 14, walked four and allowed just two hits — Kalib Smith’s first-inning single and Donnie Mitchell’s infield hit in the fifth.
“Warren pitched well — he threw strikes,” Shaughnessy said.
The Hornets added three more runs in the third on a single by DeAngelo, Nate Baker’s long RBI triple that resulted in him scoring on a throwing error back to the infield, a single by Calkins, and walks to Miller, Anderson and Kallen Abernethy, with the walk to Abernethy forcing in a run.
Anderson singled in a run in the fifth to make it 11-1 and Jack Sorrell walked and crossed the plate on an error in the sixth to complete the scoring.
The only threat Peru had the rest of the way was in the top of the fifth when it loaded the bases with one out on walks to Deacon Whitmarsh and Peters, along with Mitchell’s infield hit. However Miller got out of it when the Hornets turned a double play.
“We played well,” Shaughnessy said. “We didn’t make any errors and ran the bases well. We’re always working on those two things.
“Turning that 5-2-3 double play to end the fifth was huge.”
“We played our game,” Calkins said. “We didn’t make any errors and when we needed to make a play, we did.”
Calkins, Anderson and DeAngelo led the Hornets with three hits each, while Baker chipped in with two.
DeAngelo, Baker and Calkins, the three hitters at the top of the Hornets’ line-up, combined to score seven runs, deliver eight hits and drive in four runs.
“It feels awesome,” Calkins said. “But we’re not done yet.”
Plattsburgh returns to Chip Cummings Field to oppose Section II champion Albany Academy (15-7) in NYSPHSAA Class A sub-regional play next Thursday at 4:30 p.m.
“Coaches (Steven) Peryea, (Mike) Deloria and (Joe) Tolosky have been a tremendous asset to our program with all the work they have done this season,” Shaughnessy said. “We wouldn’t be as good as we are without those guys.”
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Plattsburgh 12, Peru 1
PCS 010 000 0 — 1 2 3
PHS 073 011 x — 12 12 0
Frechette, Duprey (3) and Moore. Miller and Calkins. WP- Miller. LP- Frechette. 3B- Baker (PHS).