Oneonta, NY — The State University of New York at New Paltz baseball program needed a sweep of a pivotal doubleheader Saturday to keep it's playoff hopes alive, and the team got the job done, winning two close games at Oneonta, 1-0 and 6-3.
 
"The mindset was to keep playing no matter what happened," said SUNY New Paltz coach Thomas Seay, "Luckily we got a tremendous outing out of Anthony Amoroso and was able to capitalize on a ball that skipped by the catcher to win game one."
 
Game one saw a classic pitching duel between SUNY New Paltz (9-9 overall, 5-9 SUNYAC) and the Oneonta Red Dragons (10-8 overall, 5-7 SUNYAC). Senior ace Anthony Amoroso (3-3) pitched a gem, going eight innings with five hits and 10 strikeouts, keeping Oneonta scoreless. Just three of his 24 outs recorded were in the air.
 
"Honestly we just wanted to get 5-6 innings out of Anthony today. We felt if we did that and the game was close we'd have a chance to win," Seay said, "But he really seniored up today, and if he's not the SUNYAC pitcher of the week this week, I won't know what to say."
 
Not to be outdueled, Oneonta freshman Michael Sadowski matched Amoroso in a complete game, nine strikeout effort, but one wild pitch in the third allowed freshman Vincent Siano to score proved to be the difference in the game. The Red Dragons threatened in the bottom of the ninth against Billy Moeller with a one-out double, but the junior struck out the next two hitters to sit down the side and end the 1-0 ballgame. Oneonta left five runners on base in the game.
  The Hawks got on the board first again in game two on Siano's fielder's choice groundout in the second inning. In the third, with two outs after a double play, senior Dean Stalzer crushed his fifth home run of the season to put SUNY New Paltz up by two. Stalzer's five round-trippers are the most for a Hawk in a single season since Chris Moran went deep five times in the spring 2018 season. Stalzer is one home run away from moving into a six way fourth-place tie for most in a single season.
 
"Dean is a big powerful man," said Seay. "Even when he's banged up like he's been much of the year, when he barrels a ball it has a chance to get out of the ballpark."
 
The Hawks added another in the fourth after a safety squeeze by Matt Laurelli with one out turned into an RBI bunt single, knocking Red Dragons ace Sean Liquori out of the game. After a double steal, freshman Justin Ortiz lined a single into left that scored Laurelli and Justin Harvey that seemingly blew the game open at 5-0.
 
"When you're facing two quality starters like Oneonta has runs are a premium, so being able to manufacture runs in a lot of different ways is important," Seay said. "We scored in a lot of ways today — a homerun, down angle ground ball read at third, we RBI bunted and got some clutch, two-out RBI hits."
 
However, after a great start to the game, Hawks' senior starter Bobby Ramsey walked the first two hitters in the bottom of the fourth, then balked to put the two runners in scoring position. Immediately after the balk, Moeller was called in to relieve Ramsey. After being held scoreless for 12 innings, Oneonta finally got on the board on a Matthew McAllister one-out RBI single.
 
In the sixth, Moeller got into a bases loaded, no-one out jam, but struck out McAllister and induced a flyout from Cole Rockwell. Down to it's final strike in the inning, he forced a ground ball to shortstop, but an error on the play allowed two runners to score. Freshman Matthew Polestino came in relief and struck out Skyler Daniello for the final out, but the Hawks lead was cut to two on the third Hawks error on the day.
 
"I don't know if we fix those defensive issues overnight. We just have to keep playing and try to score one more run than our opponent," Seay said. "We've really struggled at times defensively this season. We just have to continue to work in practice to protect the baseball." 
 
SUNY New Paltz got one run back on a two-out rally in the seventh, capped by junior Michael Boccarossa's RBI single through the left side. Harvey, who moved to the mound for the bottom of the seventh to close it out, got three straight outs on eight pitches to end the game and secure the doubleheader sweep.
 
"Bobby has an ankle issue that's plagued him much of the year and it just swelled up on him," Seay said, "He was throwing really well, so it's unfortunate he couldn't finish, but Billy Moeller came in and got out of a jam and then same with Matt Polestino in the sixth. And of course Nick Harvey closed the game out in the seventh, so it was a great bullpen effort to secure the second game win."
 
The Hawks are back on the field for the final doubleheader of the regular season Wednesday at Plattsburgh (4-10 overall), with a chance to play in the SUNYAC tournament for the first time since 2018, and just the fifth time since 2001. With the sweep Saturday, SUNY New Paltz is just one game back of Oneonta for second place — and a playoff spot — in the SUNYAC East Division.
 
"We still control our destiny," Seay said. "It all starts with game one, got to go out and win game one. After that then we'll focus on what's next. We need to get some rest, get in the training room for rehab and prehab, get a good lift in and then have a quality practice. We feel good but know we still have a lot to play for."
 
First pitch of the doubleheader is scheduled for 1 p.m.
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