The State University of New York at New Paltz baseball team starts off its SUNYAC play with one of the best teams in the country in No. 23 Oswego State. The Lakers come into the weekend series at 8-5, while the Hawks stand just over .500 at 7-6 after their 20-5 win against St. Joseph's College – Brooklyn in their home opener.

Last season, Oswego State took two of three in the regular season series, but all three games were tightly contested. The Lakers ended up making it to the College World Series after receiving an at large bid when the SUNYAC tournament was cancelled. This season Oswego State has already kicked off its conference play as they took on Fredonia State in Florida over Spring Break, where they were able to take two out of three against the Blue Devils.

Mike Dellicarri, a junior outfielder for Oswego State, boasts one of the most dangerous bats in all of Division III with runners on base as he leads the nation in RBIs per game. One of the keys for the SUNY New Paltz pitching staff will be to limit Dellicarri's effectiveness in the middle of that lineup.

After 13 games for both teams, their batting averages are almost identical as the Hawks post a .310 percentage compared to .306 for the Lakers. Coach Freeman has preached to his pitchers all year that they need to pound the plate and put the pressure on the hitter by getting up early in the count.

Senior right-handed pitcher Luke Christy is scheduled to make a start for SUNY New Paltz over the weekend and after last year's Tommy John surgery, he is ready to make an impact.

"To be able to throw just shy of 100 pitches and feel really good coming back and getting a start this weekend is something I'm really happy and proud of," said Christy. "I think that with the team I've got behind me, I have the most faith I've ever had in a team that I'll be able to be successful against a team like Oswego."

Offensively, the Hawks are coming off their best performance of the season. They dismantled St. Joseph's College – Brooklyn by putting up 20 runs with RBIs from 10 different players.

"Winning 20-5 in baseball is very hard to do, even if the team is weak or strong," said senior first baseman Chris Moran. "Oswego is a very good team, and they hit the ball really well. We have to play solid defense, pitch and throw strikes, and come up with timely hitting just like Coach Freeman has been preaching all year."

Moran is one of the top hitters for SUNY New Paltz with a .341 average, while Anthony Pantano and Danny Campbell lead the way with .375 and .348, respectively. Senior third baseman Jake Williams has tallied a .326 average as well as a team-high 11 RBIs.

In addition to Christy, Conor Donachie and Ryan Votypka are scheduled to take the mound in the other two games. The three upperclassmen have combined for six starts and nine appearances on the season. Votypka enters the weekend 1-0 with a complete game victory against previously ranked Washington & Jefferson, while Donachie and Christy have also shown flashes of stellar pitching throughout the season.

"The past few years they've shown that they can really hit the ball," said Christy. "For us to be successful against them we're going to need to force weak contact by throwing our fastballs for strikes, throwing our off speed for strikes and really just coming after them. They can hit top to bottom so it's going to be important to keep them off balance."

SUNY New Paltz will take on Oswego State in Rochester, NY for the first two games of the series on Friday at 12 and 3 p.m. at Monroe Community College. Both teams will then head back to Oswego to finish up the series at 12 p.m. on Saturday. Be sure to follow @nphawks on Twitter and @newpaltzhawks on Instagram and Facebook for updates, highlights, videos, photos and more.