The Syracuse Spartans took a visit to The Basket Monday evening for a 1pm first pitch as they visited the Rochester Ridgemen for their 2022 NYCBL season opener. Most teams looked to open things up strong in the season, the Spartans did more than that. Your final score: A 10-0 rout of the Ridgemen, with a dominant holistic performance for new Head Coach Paul Ludden’s ballclub.
As I said, holistic was the best adjective for their efforts in Rochester. But, if we had to single it out to one cause, it was the surgical precision of OCC Sophomore Seth Zurbruegg. He toed the rubber after a 1-2-3 away half of the first, gave up a lead-off walk, and proceeded to sit down 5 consecutive batters before giving up his next baserunner. With great command, and a mid-80’s fastball that appeared to get faster throughout his outing, and Zurbruegg was a swing-and-miss producer the rest of the way. The young right hander’s final scoreline tallied 6 scoreless innings, with 7 strikeouts, and only TWO hits to his name!
Other pitchers including Aaron Cole and Josh Martin contributed willfully to the shutout, but the work at the plate for the Spartans were most of note in their season opener. They played small ball well, using a handful of sacrifice hits from Matthew Alexander and Pat May. But their plate discipline was second in importance to the absolute spray of hits across the ballpark, mostly in part to Bryce Moore’s pair of RBI singles, and Noah Root’s 3 RBI doubles.
Quite obviously, Noah Root’s consistency at the plate was most of note, as three consecutive RBI doubles is hard to do. You know what’s even harder to do? For all three of those hits to be identical, line-drive knocks dropped midway down the left field line. Identical. This big lefty stroked the ball the other way with archer-like accuracy, and will be a name look out for as the season progresses.
A lot to take in, but not too much to be upset about, according to Head Coach Paul Ludden, who was more than thrilled by his roster in our post-game interview:
“It’s nice to have guys who just have each other’s backs…it was great to have guys like that [on the field]”
It was a comfortable outing for New Head Coach Paul Ludden’s Spartans debut. A guy who has playing experience across the Independent baseball realm, and it really showed, Monday afternoon.
Plenty more of this is expected as the Spartans now look forward to their home opener Wednesday evening for Challenger Baseball Night as the Sherrill Silversmiths visit OCC for a 7pm first pitch. If you can’t make it for that exciting matchup, the Spartans finish their small homestand with a Rochester rematch Thursday evening, before heading off for what should be a competitive road trip weekend against Cortland, followed by a doubleheader with Hornell, Sunday afternoon!