Virginia Beach, VA — The State University of New York at New Paltz came away empty handed in its first day of a three-game slate in Virginia Beach Friday.
 
After scoring first in both games against hosting Virginia Wesleyan and Ithaca College, the Hawks couldn't maintain the lead and dropped both matchups 8-2 and 5-4, respectively.
 
"I credit Virginia Wesleyan and Ithaca… CJ Morris for Virginia Wesleyan threw outstanding. It was probably one of his better outings for his career and then [Kyle] Lambert from Ithaca was outstanding," said SUNY New Paltz coach Thomas Seay. "He is one of the best arms in our region and he pitched like it today. It was a steady three-pitch mix with good life on his fastball, good tilt and he pitched. When you have two guys like that that are throwing strikes and controlling sequences and spinning a breaking ball and locating a breaking ball and our tough, then when you do have opportunities with runners in scoring position then you got to find a way to scratch for those runs. That's the difference in the day. They made pitches when they needed to, and we didn't have nearly as competitive at-bats with runners in scoring position than we had at-bats to get into scoring position."
 
The Hawks got out to a 1-0 lead over the hosting Marlins in the top of the first when Jordan Rios knocked an RBI double to left center to plate Joe Patane, one of three runs scored by the freshman on the day. Virginia Wesleyan gained a run back in the fifth on a Jake Ness solo home run, but Justin Ortiz helped SUNY New Paltz cut the difference back to one in the top of the sixth.
 
Starting the inning with a lead-off double to left, Ortiz was batted in four batters later, as Ryan Mackle reached on a throwing error to score Ortiz who was on third following a walk and another throwing error by the Marlins. Dillon Ristano then loaded the bases on a two-out single, but the Hawks couldn't add on as Michael Boccarossa grounded out to second for the final out of the inning.  
"We got some good at-bats from the top half of the order," Seay said. "Justin Ortiz had some good at-bats today, Patane had good at-bats, Mackle had some good at-bats and really, we were able to set the table. We were able to get some guys in scoring position, but we weren't able to push runs across when we had some opportunities."
 
After six innings of work by starter Billy Moeller, who had another solid day after allowing three earned runs on four hits with no walks and seven strikeouts, Scott Wagner stepped up to the hill for SUNY New Paltz but immediately struggled against the middle of the order of the Marlins. Garrett Lyons homered to open up the inning, followed with a walk by Matt Sinko and a wild pitch a batter later advanced him into scoring position. Wagner got the next batter to strike out looking for the first out, but another wild pitch and a walk forced Seay to enter freshman Andrew Ferber in for relief. Virginia Wesleyan added three more before freshman Jeremy Acosta replaced Ferber to get a fly-out to end the inning.
 
"We gave up a big inning in game one. The bullpen kind of let us down, threw some young guys — with the exception of Wagner — first college outings and kind of didn't go well, but I thought for the most part throughout the day we pitched really, really well. I was pleased with our pitching," Seay said.
 
Rios led the way offensively in the outing with two hits and an RBI. Patane followed going 1-for-2 with two walks and a run scored.
 
Patane once again crossed home plate to start the game for the Hawks against Ithaca College, taking a 1-0 lead entering the bottom half of the first on an RBI single by Rios. SUNY New Paltz went up 3-0 in the top of the sixth with Patane getting the offense started with a two-out double to right. Dean Stalzer plated Patane on an RBI single, as he advanced to second on the throw. Rios earned a base-hit and scored Stalzer on a throwing error from the outfield to push the cushion to three entering the bottom half of the inning, but the Bombers quickly made up ground.
Opening the sixth with back-to-back base hits, Nicholas Cutaia tripled to bring both runners home and scored himself a batter later on a single by Gil Merod, but Hawks starting pitcher Nick Harvey got out of the inning with two straight outs on a fly out and fielder's choice to keep the game knotted at three runs apiece. 
 
Neither team scored until the ninth. Mackle kept the inning alive for SUNY New Paltz, earning a two-out walk. Boccarossa then stepped up and hit a clutch two-out RBI double to give his team the go-ahead lead entering the bottom of the ninth, but the run advantage wasn't enough as Ithaca won in walk-off fashion.

Merod led off with a single and was followed by an RBI double from Connor Pedersen who ultimately scored the game-winner after advancing to third and then home on consecutive throwing errors on the play, as James Trink's throw to check the runner at second was mishandled followed by an errant throw from center field to allow the winning run to score.
 
Harvey tossed six innings and allowed five hits, three earned runs, two walks and striking out four. Trink allowed three hits, one earned run and had two strikeouts in two innings.
 
"From a straight up pitching standpoint, I was very pleased with those guys," said Seay of Moeller, Harvey and Trink. "I thought they threw well enough to win and unfortunately, we just didn't win. I thought we played well enough to win both games from a pitching and defensive standpoint. I know the box score says we had four errors in game two, but I thought defensively we were pretty good. But the difference of the day was our inability to capitalize offensively when we had some scoring opportunities and that was really the difference."
 
Rios was the only Hawk to have multiple hits in the game, going 2-for-4 with two RBI. Patane went 1-for-2 with two runs, a walk and a stolen base.
 
SUNY New Paltz have a re-match against the Bombers Saturday at 11 a.m.


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