The State University of New York at New Paltz baseball team controls its own destiny as they enter the final weekend of the regular season. The Hawks currently sit in fourth place in SUNYAC at 7-7 with Fredonia State and SUNY Oneonta right on their tails at 5-9 and 6-9, respectively. With a three-game series against the Red Dragons on Friday and Saturday, and a game against the Blue Devils on Sunday, SUNY New Paltz can lock up a spot in the playoffs and the No. 3 seed with a 3-1 weekend. The game time for Friday's tilt with SUNY Oneonta has been pushed to 5 p.m.
 
The Hawks head into the weekend on a high note after beating No. 7 SUNY Cortland 8-6 on senior day. The win also snapped the Red Dragons win streak of twenty games.

"It felt great because we've struggled against them in the past," said senior left-handed pitcher Brian LoRusso. "This year felt a little different, we had close games all three games. That one game will hopefully take us in stride for the next couple series."

SUNY New Paltz enters the weekend with a chance to move up the No. 3 seed as well with the College at Brockport's SUNYAC season completed at 9-9. The Hawks took two of three against the Golden Eagles earlier this season, so the tiebreaker goes to SUNY New Paltz. 

SUNY Oneonta is coming off the biggest win of its season so far as they took out the College at Brockport on Thursday 11-10. The Red Dragons needed to pull out the victory to keep their playoff hopes alive and will need to take at least two of three from the Hawks to remain in contention.

The Hawks are better at the plate averaging .292 as a team compared to SUNY Oneonta, which posts a .253 average. However, the pitching advantage goes to the Red Dragons with a team ERA of 4.18. Although SUNY Oneonta has a solid pitching staff, SUNY New Paltz scored eight runs in its win over No. 7 SUNY Cortland, which entered the game with the second best team ERA in the country. 

The hottest bat in SUNYAC belongs to senior first baseman Chris Moran. The Wading River, NY native has brought home back-to-back SUNYAC Athlete of the Week honors and has hit five home runs in the last eight games. He leads the team in batting average at .356 as well as on-base percentage at .495. The recent trend from opposing teams has been to intentionally walk Moran when first base is open, but the deep lineup from the Hawks has consistently made opponents pay for that decision as Moran leads the team in runs scored. 

SUNY Oneonta's most used pitcher is Nicholas Ponesse, a senior from Newburgh, NY. However, Ponesse pitched 6 2/3 innings against the College at Brockport on Thursday and will most likely be unavailable this weekend to pitch. The best bat in the Red Dragons lineup also belongs to a senior, Dalton Beatty. Beatty leads the team in batting average at .347 and has 19 RBIs on the season.

The SUNY New Paltz pitching staff has hit its stride at the right time and has kept the Hawks in almost every game for the second half of the season. Senior right-handed pitcher Luke Christy is scheduled to start during the weekend and has been pitching very well in his return to the mound after Tommy John surgery last season. Junior right-handed pitcher Ryan Votypka is coming off his biggest performance of the season after picking up the win in four innings pitched against SUNY Cortland on Sunday. Votypka has been dominant on the mound out of the bullpen for the majority of the season, posting a team-high 29 strikeouts on 27 innings pitched. 

"Against Oneonta I think we're going to have throw breaking balls for strikes and we're going to have to be consistent because you can't walk too many guys," said LoRusso. "Just generally compete in the zone and come up with big pitches when we need to."

The Hawks take on the Red Dragons at 5 p.m. on Friday and are scheduled to start the doubleheader at 12 p.m. on Saturday, but with rain in the forecast it is possible for the start times to be moved around. SUNY New Paltz will then take on Fredonia State at 1 p.m. on Saturday at Onondaga Community College. Be sure to follow @nphawks on Twitter and @newpaltzhawks on Instagram and Facebook for updates, highlights, videos, photos and more.