Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2
NEW PALTZ, N.Y. – The State University of New York at New Paltz softball team kept itself squarely in the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) playoff race with a doubleheader split against SUNY Oswego on Friday afternoon at Mary Gray Deane Field in SUNYAC action. New Paltz lost game one, 2-0, before battling back for a 2-0 victory in game two.
New Paltz moves to 18-15 overall (9-7 SUNYAC) with the results and next hosts SUNY Cortland tomorrow at 12 p.m. in its final regular-season games of 2016. Oswego moves to 14-15 overall (7-9 SUNYAC) with the results and next visits SUNY Oneonta for a 12 p.m. doubleheader tomorrow.
Game 1: Oswego 2, New Paltz 0
Senior pitcher
Katie Rutcofsky (Plainview, N.Y./Plainview-Old Bethpage John F. Kennedy) struck out a career-high-tying 10 batters in game one, but her counterpart, junior pitcher Brittney Sears, ended up throwing a four-hit shutout with nine strikeouts to give the Lakers the 2-0 victory.
Freshman shortstop Erin Sweeney put the Lakers on the board in the third, scoring freshman center fielder Sarah McCullough from second with a two-out single up the middle. McCullough put herself in scoring position in the fifth with a one-out triple, and following a groundout that kept her at third, Sweeney brought her in with a double to left center. New Paltz was unable to counter, as Oswego captured the game one win.
Four different Hawks registered a hit, while Sweeney and McCullough each went 2-for-3 to lead Oswego.
Game 2: New Paltz 2, Oswego 0
The script flipped in game two, as it was junior pitcher
Taylor Corwin (Wantagh, N.Y./Wantagh) who prevailed in a pitchers' duel with Sears.
New Paltz provided the game's lone runs in the first inning. After Oswego recorded two outs to start the bottom of the first, an error allowed Rutcofsky to reach base and extend the inning. Junior center fielder
Fallon Spriggs (Kingston, N.Y./Kingston) then doubled to right center to put runners on second and third before sophomore right fielder
Danielle Bruno (Dix Hills, N.Y./Half Hollow Hills East) plated both Spriggs and Rutcofsky with a single to right.
All told, Corwin gave up just three hits while allowing just one extra base runner off of an error. She also struck out three in the shutout victory. Sears shouldered the loss for Oswego, allowing two unearned runs off five hits and two walks while striking out three.
Bruno batted 2-for-3 with two RBI and a stolen base to key the Hawk attack, while three different Lakers finished with a hit.
