The State University of New York at New Paltz baseball team enters the 2018 season with a talented and deep roster ready to fight for a conference title, and although the Hawks will face some of the best competition in the country in the SUNYAC, they know they have the pieces to make a deep postseason run in 2018.
 
"I believe with the senior leadership and the amount of talented players we have this year that we have a chance to contend for a conference championship this year," said head coach Arlan Freeman. "It's going to be tough, our conference is one of the best in the country."
 
SUNY New Paltz reached the playoffs last year in Freeman's first season at the helm, but due to weather the playoffs were canceled.

Qualifying for the postseason for the first time since 2013 was a big accomplishment for the Hawks, but this year they have their eyes set on reaching the SUNYAC championship game. However, with preseason No. 1 SUNY Cortland and No. 11 Oswego State, who reached the DIII World Series last season, in their conference it will be a tall task.
 
SUNY New Paltz brings in a 29-man roster with a deep pitching rotation to compliment solid defense and hitting throughout their lineup. Senior right-handed pitcher and co-captain Conor Donachie believes that preseason practices have prepared the team to face top competition.
 
"This preseason has been long and arduous," said Donachie. "We've been preparing a lot harder and more intensely than we have in previous years so we think we're really ready to roll."
 
Donachie and the pitching staff from last season finished fourth in the conference in ERA at a solid 4.26. Freeman acknowledged that his team doesn't have one pitcher who stands above the rest, but knows that any of his pitchers can go to the mound and give the team a chance to win.
 
In addition to the extra work being put in during preseason, Freeman has preached a new team culture and dynamic from day one, which the team believes will give them a leg-up on the competition.
 
"He's got a five-pillar system, which is honor, attitude and work equals success is the Hawks mantra," said senior co-captain and catcher Dwayne Page. "We really created a big family atmosphere here. If I'm working hard it's for the guy next to me and so on and so forth.This way, it has every single player on the team accountable for their actions."

Before getting the chance to defend their home field, the Hawks will go through a rigorous 15-game road stretch, which includes their spring break trip to Florida. The first home games for SUNY New Paltz will also be its conference opener against Fredonia State March 23. The Hawks travel to Oswego State and The College at Brockport for two of their tougher matchups, but will get to face the No. 1 Red Dragons in their last home games of the season.
 
"I think the key to beating teams like that is just treating them like any other game," said Page. "I think people tend to treat the teams like Cortland and Oswego like it's a different kind of game, but what it comes down to is playing your best baseball every single day."
 
Last season SUNY New Paltz took out Oswego State in the first of a three-game series, but then fell just short in the final two games with scores of 6-2, 6-4, respectively. The Hawks dropped all three of their games to SUNY Cortland last season, but just like with the Lakers, they kept the games close, losing just 6-2, 4-1, and 6-4.

But despite a tough road ahead, SUNY New Paltz is confident it will make history in 2018.

"I know [winning a conference championship] hasn't happened ever in the history of New Paltz, but I believe with our culture and our team dynamics we have we have a chance this year," Freeman said. "Early in the season we'll figure out what we need to do, but i think our guys believe we're going to dog pile on our field this year."

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