New Paltz, NY – On Monday, the State University of New York at New Paltz baseball team had a nearly two-hour team meeting to regroup from its previous four-game stretch where it dropped three of four games. And although Tuesday's outing wasn't perfect, the Hawks showed their resiliency to get a doubleheader split against visiting SUNY Oneonta.
Speared by a come-from-behind 12-inning effort in game one where they dropped a tight, 7-6 game, SUNY New Paltz came back once again, backed by a solid outing from ace
Anthony Amoroso and propelled with a go-ahead two-run blast by sophomore third baseman
Nick Harvey to capture a 4-3 game two victory over the Red Dragons.
"We've been grinding every day," Harvey said. "We have guys banged up everywhere and it just feels amazing showing that we are dog-fighting out here for every win, especially against a team like that we're rivals with them and to beat them felt amazing."
The team didn't come away with the game one victory, but the momentum spurred from coming back in the eighth down by as many as six runs in the game helped carry the belief the Hawks needed to do the same in game two. Amoroso earned the win on the stat sheet and Harvey knocked the two-run shot to propel it, but the unsung hero was freshman
Kyle Gaertner who fueled SUNY New Paltz's energy in three innings of relief to help sustain a tied ball-game heading into the 11th inning.
Sean Liquori was pitching a gem until the eighth for Oneonta, holding a no-hitter before the Hawks'
Dean Stalzer got the rally going by sneaking his fourth homer of the season just over the glove of the Red Dragons left fielder.
Matthew McGee followed by hustling out a hard hit grounder at first. Harvey then lined a single over the middle of the field to score McGee and cutting the deficit to four.
Gaertner came in for
Nick Zangara to start the eighth and the Wantagh, NY native struck out his first two batters before getting a flyout for a 1-2-3 inning to fuel a pivotal bottom half of the inning.
Gallery: (4-13-2021) Baseball vs. Oneonta April 13, 2021
SUNY New Paltz took advantage of a couple fielding errors by Oneonta to get its first three runners on with no outs. With the bases loaded, Stalzer knocked the first pitch he saw to right field and scored
Matt Laurelli and
Justin Ortiz to get the score, 6-4. Geraghty scored a batter later, as a ball skirted by Red Dragons catcher Sean McGlynn to get the Hawks within one. McGee then got the job done, hitting a chopper to short and scoring Stalzer from third.
"I thought today was just a huge character-building day for our ball club," said SUNY New Paltz coach
Thomas Seay. "I tip my hat to Oneonta pitcher [Liquori]. He was really good. He had a sink on his fastball. He had good command over his breaking ball and he was moving his fastball around the zone. Dean got us going by breaking up the no-hitter with a home run and a couple more base hits we were able to put two on the board, and then the very next inning was able to come back and put a four spot up and tie the game. Then all of the sudden we got some momentum."
Gaertner pitched the ninth and kept composure after two runners got on after back-to-back errors in the field. He made sure to make quick work of the inning, striking out two more batters to keep the score tied at six. Gaertner got out of another jam in the 10th after allowing a single and a walk to have two runners on once again. He didn't allow any damage, however, forcing back-to-back flyouts to end the inning once more.
"I credit
Kyle Gaertner. A tremendous amount of success we had today was contributed to him," Seay said. "Coming in and throwing some zeros up on the board and allowing us to get into the game and get some momentum going and play with some energy -- unfortunately, we didn't do enough in game one to win. We kicked ourselves a couple times and made some errant throws and gave Onoenta a couple cheap runs, but we competed. We didn't give up. We could have rolled over after the first inning after giving up three runs and then being down six runs. We could have rolled over and allowed Oneonta to take the game and we didn't. We battled."
After giving up a lead-off double in the 11th, Gaertner was relieved by Geraghty who switched from centerfield to the hill with Gaertner moving to third, McCarrick shifting from third to left field and Harvey shuffled to shortstop for Laurelli. The change worked, as Geraghty gave up a walk in the inning, but earned his first strikeout as a Hawk, while getting a flyout and pop fly to get out of the inning unscathed.
With a young pitching staff, Seay decided to have Geraghty throw some bullpen sessions earlier in the week before deciding to give the senior some action on the mound Tuesday.
"Geraghty has some experience pitching in college. He pitched a little bit at Orange Community College where he transferred in from. He's got a good arm and we felt like we needed to find some spots strategically to get him in the game," Seay said. "Originally, we thought we'd go to Geraghty right after [starting pitcher Matthew] Polestino and the game didn't really dictate that, so once we got it close and we got an opportunity to get him in the game then we had to be really creative because then we lost our DH, we had to move some guys around the field and bounce them from position to position. We stress in the recruiting process with the guys that you have to be able to play multiple positions… it wasn't like those guys were playing in positions they were uncomfortable with. It was just an unconventional way that we are going to have to play that fourth game of the week, where we don't have a true fourth starter right now and we just have to be creative."
Geraghty got the first out of the inning, but gave up a walk on the next batter that then advanced to second on a wild pitch. A flyout advanced the runner to third and the Red Dragons put the go-ahead run across on another wild pitch.
McCarrick started the bottom of the inning with a walk, but back-to-back strikeouts left SUNY New Paltz with its last out.
Vincent Siano came into pinch hit for Stalzer who had an apparent hamstring injury suffered in the field an inning prior. McGee came up to bat for a chance to extend the game further, but his hard-hit liner was handled by Oneonta's shortstop and the game ended at 7-6 in favor of the visitors.
Geraghty received the loss after pitching the last two innings, giving up just one earned run. Gaertner finished with four strikeouts and one walk, while giving up just two hits in three innings of work.
Despite the loss, the Hawks carried their energy for another gritty performance in game two.
"I really believe that being able to come back, tie the ball game and
Kyle Gaertner going out there and giving us a good effort and keeping it close and try to steal a win, I think a reason why we won game two was, yes, Amo threw great, but I give a lot of credit to Kyle in how he was able to keep us from taking a loss that was unsurmountable," Seay said. "He stepped up huge and he gave us a chance to compete a little bit and try to win game one, but the momentum we were able to generate in the latter part of game one and the energy we were able to play with really carried over to game two. I was very pleased with the effort that we got in the back-half of game one and into game two."
Justin Ortiz got the offense going with a lead-off single in the bottom of the first and was eventually advanced to third following a walk and a fielder's choice before being brought home a batter later. McGee added another for SUNY New Paltz with an RBI double that plated
Jesse Keshner.
The Red Dragons tied the game in the top of the second with two runs, but Amoroso began to settle in from there. After giving up a pair of hits, walks and runs, Amoroso allowed just four more hits and an earned run while striking out eight to keep his team in the game late. A lead-off trip in the fifth allowed Oneonta to take the lead, but again, Amoroso limited the damage to just a run. He struck out three-straight in the sixth to instigate a big bottom half of the sixth.
"I felt good. I was a little uncomfortable at first, but then I started to get into a groove and just trusted my defense and not do too much" Amoroso said. "It was just a great day. I'm just so happy we won."
McGee got the rally started with a one-out single to right, setting the table for Harvey who turned on a fastball that got out of the park quick for a two-run home run, giving the Hawks the 4-3 advantage.
"I had good at-bats off the kid earlier in the game and the last at-bat I saw a fastball up and that at-bat I was sitting fastball again, threw right where I wanted it, turned on it and went pretty far," Harvey said. "It was fantastic. I was so fired up when I touched home plate right there. The whole team was waiting for me. It was awesome."
Amoroso closed out the seventh with another 1-2-3 inning to earned his second victory of the season and give SUNY New Paltz its second SUNYAC win, keeping them in the playoff hunt.
"We came into today looking for two wins, but honestly just to see that the guys were competitive in game one and didn't quit, kind of like how I feel like we did against Plattsburgh and Oswego earlier in the year, it was huge," Amoroso said. "It was a big win and guys didn't quit. That was the biggest thing. We really needed that win and we're on a good track right now, so it was good."
Harvey finished the afternoon going 3-for-5 with three RBI and a run scored. McGee totaled three hits with two runs, two RBI and a stolen base. Stalzer didn't play in game two, but led the team offensively game one, going 2-for-5 with two runs and three RBI.
"I couldn't be more proud of how we competed today," Seay said. "Like I told them in the end, we are still not playing clean baseball. We are still doing some things that put us in compromising positions and making it harder on ourselves to win baseball games, but today we showed some real grit and I couldn't be more proud of the way they did today."
SUNY New Paltz is scheduled to play again Thursday as it visits SUNY Cortland to complete the home-and-home series starting at 1 p.m.
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Post-Game Interview featuring Anthony Amoroso and Nick Harvey
Game 1 Highlights
Game 2 Highlights
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