Box Score St. Mary's City, MD —The first time playing on the field all season and the State University of New York at New Paltz turned on a show with a dominating 15-1 win over Mount Saint Mary College Saturday on the campus of St. Mary's College (MD).
 
"We weren't overly clean in the infield, and I think it was more first-day jitters, trying to play a little too fast of what we were accustomed to," said Hawks coach Thomas Seay. "It was good to get out there and get that first win under your belt and tomorrow in a double-header you can go out there, settle down and continue to make plays, good pitches, good at-bats and it feels like they can take a good, deep exhale and go out there and play some good baseball."
 
With typical February weather in the northeast, the Hawks were regulated to indoor practices and some field work on the turf. But this weekend they made the trip south to Maryland and opened up their season against the Knights and got their first action on the diamond since fall ball and produced an impressive all-around performance, which started on the mound.
 
Nick Harvey earned the start and the win after going five innings, giving up just two hits and two walks with four strikeouts. Billy Moeller came in to pitch the final four innings and continued the dominant day on the mound, letting up just one hit and a run with seven strikeouts.
 
"We did some really good things today," Seay said. "We pitched really well. Nick Harvey was really dominant on the mound. He struggled there in the end to finish out his outing. I mean, he was tired. He threw 70 pitches, probably 10 more pitches than I'd like but he was really good. Then Billy Moeller had a rocky first couple batters and then settled in and had seven punch-outs in four innings of work to get the extended save. From a pitching standpoint we did really good. Struck out 11, gave up three hits and one unearned run. We did really well. We controlled sequences. We were able to spin a breaking ball for a strike. Stuff that we've preached over the last couple months since the fall and we executed on the mound." 
The Hawks totaled 14 hits in the outing and 13 RBI with eight coming from fifth-year senior Dean Stalzer who had a career performance, going 5-for-5 with three homeruns — all career-highs for the Shoreham, NY native.
 
Joe Patane and Matt Laurelli joined Stazler with a multi-hit day with Patane finishing 2-for-5 with three runs, an RBI and a walk in his first collegiate game. Laurelli went 2-for-5 with a run and an RBI. Justin Ortiz also had a productive day at the plate, going 1-for-3 with two runs and two walks.
 
"Positionally, that's where we're tremendous," Seay said. "I think we had 15-16 hits and scored 15 runs and Dean Stalzer had a career day with three home runs and nine RBIs, but we got some really, really good at-bats by everybody in the lineup. It was a really good day on the mound, and it was a really good day offensively."
 
SUNY New Paltz earns the win and will go back out Saturday to sweep the series over Mount Saint Mary College with a re-match set for 10 a.m. Following its outing with the Knights, the Hawks will take on hosting St. Mary's College at 1:30 p.m. James Trink and Matthew Polestino are both expected to make the start, respectively.

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