New Paltz, NY — The State University of New York at New Paltz baseball held its home opener Tuesday against SUNYAC West rival Oswego State. The Hawks hung in offensively within the first few innings of each game, but their bullpen couldn't hold up to the perennial program and dropped both games, 20-12 and 11-3 (6 innings), respectively.
 
"Game kind of unraveled on us," said SUNY New Paltz coach Thomas Seay of his team's game one performance. "We got some guys getting their first outings in college baseball and in situations like that they just didn't perform very well and it gave Oswego a lot of extra opportunities. Of course if you give a team like that free bases with walks and hit by pitches -- and we didn't play very good defense. We didn't turn double plays when we had opportunities to do so. We threw the ball to the wrong base a couple times in the outfield and stuff that we've preached throughout the last couple weeks and throughout the fall was keeping a double play in order."
 
The Hawks (2-2 overall, 0-2 SUNYAC) threw 11 pitchers Tuesday, including eight in game one. Anthony Amoroso earned the start on the mound and opened up hot in a four-inning outing where he totaled seven strikeouts, but gave up six hits and had five walks with four being hit batters.
 
 
After the Lakers (3-1, 3-1) took an early 1-0 lead in the top of the first, they added two more in the third but SUNY New Paltz began to rally in the bottom of the inning.
 
Justin Ortiz started the inning with a hard hit single to center field on an 0-2 count. A batter later Matt Laurelli laid down a bunt that trickled down the third base line. The first baseman couldn't handle the throw on the play, allowing Laurelli to advance to second and Ortiz to third. Nick Harvey loaded the bases after getting plunked by Oswego starter Jake Terrill. Ortiz then was brought home on a wild pitch to cut the score in half and kept the bases loaded for SUNY New Paltz's Dean Stalzer who already had a home run on the season. Stalzer had a patient at-bat and finally found one he got around and crushed well past the left field fence for a grand slam to give SUNY New Paltz a 5-3 lead.
 

GRAND SLAM!!!! Dean Stalzer gives @NP_BaseballD3 a 5-3 learning the bottom of the 3rd inning @newpaltz @SUNYACsports #NPHawks #NPBaseball #LETSGOHAWKS pic.twitter.com/1NK7b6ps4w

— New Paltz Hawks (@nphawks) April 6, 2021

Oswego threatened in the fourth after getting its first two hitters on with back-to-back base hits. A ground out on the following at-bat put the Lakers with runners in scoring position, as Amoroso hit the following batter to load the bases. A walk and another hit-by-pitch tied the score at five. Amoroso forced a grounder and the Hawks earned the force at the plate to initially preserve a run, but Adam Webber's throw to first on attempted double-play went high allowing another runner to score on the error. Amoroso limited the damage from there, however, and got a fly-out to end the inning. 
 
At 74 pitches, Amoroso was done for the day and was relieved by freshman James Trink who had a solid outing in his collegiate debut against Skidmore, but the Lakers got on top of the rookie early and added two more runs following a walk, a double and a two RBI single by Frank Levanti to push the lead, 8-5. 
"With Amo we'd like him to go more than four, but he was in a lot of stressful innings and we felt like with the game still pretty close right there we can go to James Trink who against Skidmore he was really good. He's a freshman and things are going to happen like that," Seay said.
 
Stalzer answered again for the Hawks. In the bottom of the fifth, the senior blasted another homerun this time just a two RBI homer, scoring Matthew McGee who got on with a base knock, to cut the difference to one at 8-7. Ryan Geraghty kept the inning alive on a two-out base hit with Webber earning a walk to put two runners on. A passed ball put both Geraghty and Webber in scoring position for Justin Ortiz. Ortiz swung hard and got a piece of the ball but wasn't enough to find the other side of the fence as the Lakers' centerfielder made the catch stranding both runners in scoring position.
 
The game then blasted open in the top of sixth with Oswego piling on seven runs on four hits, including a home run by Jacob Levine. The Lakers then added five more runs in the following inning to put the game out reach with their cushion pushed to 20-7.

"We just didn't execute very well defensively in game one," Seay said. "It's kind of hard to play quality defense when you're not getting good tempo, good rhythm of the game because your pitcher on the mound is not giving you a good effort. So, game one was pretty poor all the way around."
 
SUNY New Paltz showed some grit in the bottom of the eighth. McGee and McCarrick put themselves in scoring position for Jesse Keshner who knocked a two RBI single, bringing both his teammates home. Vincent Siano registered his first RBI of his collegiate career, knocking an RBI single to score Keshner. The Hawks added one more by inning's end, with Geraghty, who got on following a base hit, scoring on a wild pitch, which brought the score to 20-11.
 
Ultimately, the deficit was too big for SUNY New Paltz. Oswego added four insurance runs in the top of the ninth to solidify the win.
 
The Lakers finished with 17 hits with seven different players recording two or more hits. The Hawks finished with 15 hits, led by Stalzer who went 3-for-5 with six RBI, three runs and a walk. Keshner also had a solid game, going 3-for-3 with one run and two RBI.
 
"I think Dean is one of the better hitters in the league. He kind of showed that today. He was good. We expect that," Seay said. "He's been swinging the bat well in practice and we've been swinging the bat well in practice from top to bottom. I don't think offensively we were able to get into a rhythm. Sometimes when your playing from behind like we were in the first game it's almost like every at-bat you have to do something really special. You're just not going to be able to do that all time. Not against a team of the caliber Oswego is. We're going to have to be more competitive on the defensive side of the baseball and get good pitching outings. I just don't think offenses are geared to scoring 15 runs a game."
  Game two mirrored much of game one, with the Hawks' staff struggling with walks throughout the game, giving Oswego free batters. The struggles bled into the defense as well, as the hosts had an uncharacteristic three errors in game two, which the Lakers jumped on to gain the lead.
 
Oswego got its first three hitters on to start the game and took an early 2-0 advantage. Defensive blunders allowed SUNY New Paltz to get within one in the bottom of the second. Ortiz hustled down the first base line after a dropped third strike. The throw to first went over the head of the first baseman, advancing Ortiz to second and scoring Geraghty who started the at-bat on first following a fielders choice. The Hawks couldn't pile on, however, as the inning ended on a strikeout.
 
SUNY New Paltz took its first lead of the day in the bottom of the third. Michael Boccarossa started the rally after a hard-working at-bat, fouling off pitches before he took a ball on a full count to get on base with no outs. Keshner came through with a double, advancing Boccarossa to third who scored on a wild pitch in the following at-bat to tie the game. McGee did his job, grounding out to second to score Keshner, which gave the Hawks a 2-1 advantage.   
 
After tying the game in the fourth with a run, the Lakers once again broke the game open with a huge fifth inning. Oswego totaled three walks in the inning and took advantage, scoring five to earn a commanding, 9-3 advantage.
 
SUNY New Paltz's offense stalled from there with the Lakers adding two in the top of the sixth before the game was called due to darkness.
 
Nick Harvey got the start on the hill for the Hawks. He pitched three innings, giving up five hits and two earned runs in the loss. Billy Moeller came in for relief and pitched two innings, giving up four hits and seven earned runs with two strikeouts.
 
"Game two we had it predetermined that Nick would go two-to-three and Billy would go two-to-three because they'll come back and start games one and two against Plattsburgh on Saturday," Seay said. "They have an easier time bouncing back than Amoroso does. So their two innings was predetermined there, but again in the fourth and fifth inning we just didn't do a good job of getting the lead off guy out and couldn't pitch out of a jam. That inning got away from us and that was preverbal nail in the coffin right there."
 
SUNY New Paltz lacked the same type of production offensively it had in the first game, totaling just four hits. Keshner led the team, going 1-for-3 with a run scored, followed by Boccarossa who went 1-for-1 with a run and a walk.
 
"Offensively I thought we did some good things. We squared some balls up in game one and we did some things in game two," Seay said. "Offensively I thought we did enough to be competitive and challenge, but when you're not getting good pitching and not making plays to help out your pitching it can be very demoralizing. We preached over and over again that quality pitching, quality defense is going to be the key to our success. Because in college baseball you're not going to put up 10, 12, 14 runs a game and you're going to be able to play catch, throw strike one, spin a quality breaking ball — these are the things we talk about repeatedly and we just didn't do a quality job of it today."
 
The Hawks have a few days off before their next outing Saturday against Plattsburgh State. First pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m.





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