VIRGINIA BEACH, VA – The State University of New York at New Paltz baseball team was unable to break its three-game losing streak Saturday morning against Ithaca College, losing a tough contest by a score of 13-8. The game, played on the campus of Virginia-Wesleyan and the third contest in two days for the Hawks, was their second consecutive loss to the Bombers, who defeated them 5-4 on Friday. 
 
"This weekend was a good measuring stick for us," said SUNY New Paltz coach Thomas Seay. "Ithaca is a regional caliber program with a rich history. And Virginia-Wesleyan is physical and athletic, so even though we came away losing all three, I thought we played winning baseball most of the weekend." 
 
A difficult start befell the Hawks in Saturday's game, as starting pitcher Bobby Ramsey ran into a jam early. Though he was able to secure a ground out to begin the first inning, two walks, a fielder's choice and an error led to the Bombers having the bases loaded with one out. After Gil Merod popped up, a two-run single by Connor Pedersen made the score 2-0 in favor of Ithaca. 
 
"Today's start definitely did not go as we'd like," Seay said. "To beat quality teams like Ithaca, we need to get off to a better start."
 
SUNY New Paltz responded with a big first inning of its own, as base hits from Justin Ortiz and Ryan Mackle led to a two-run single from Jordan Rios that tied the game after one inning. 
 
Ithaca College countered with another solid inning, as infielder Mike Nauta was walked by Ramsey and subsequently stole second base. Louis Fabbo was hit by a pitch and Buzz Shirley was walked to load the bases. Nicholas Cutaia singled, scoring Fabbo and Nauta to make the score, 4-2.  
The Hawks in the third inning got two runs after Michael Boccarossa hit a two-run single to bring in both Ortiz, who had singled early in the inning, and Mackle, who doubled. 
 
The Bombers really got going in the top of the fifth inning, swelling the lead to 10-4. Part of the onslaught was a Fabbo double to left-center field that scored Nauta, and then a two-run home run from Shirley. A home run in the bottom of the fifth inning from Rios made it 10-5, and SUNY New Paltz had the bases loaded with one out. The Hawks mustered one run though, which came off a Tommy Kreider hit-by-pitch and Jesse Keshner scoring as a result. 
 
Boccarossa hit a two-run double in the bottom of the sixth, which scored Mackle and Keshner and got the team within striking distance. 
 
"Boccarossa continues to be the heart and soul of this ball club," Seay said. "He's come up with clutch hits and his passion is infectious."
 
Despite SUNY New Paltz's best efforts to get back in the game, Ithaca's offense just proved to be too much. A Pedersen single got them going, and then a Colin Shashaty double scored Pedersen. Shirley added a two-run single in the eighth inning off of James Trink. 
 
The Hawks went into the ninth inning down five runs, but despite James McGovern striking out the side in the top half, Dillon Ristano flew out, Joe Patane grounded out and Ortiz struck out to end the game. 
 
"Once we got some things going after Rios' home run, we closed the gap and gave ourselves a chance to make it a game," said Seay of the 13-8 loss that was 10-8 at one point. "If we played the entire game like we did in the back half, then the outcome could've been different."   
It was a tough loss for SUNY New Paltz against a team it has yet to beat over the course of its history. Even though eight runs provided for a very strong offensive output, the offense of the Bombers was just too much, to the tune of 16 hits versus SUNY New Paltz's 12. One of the bright spots along with Boccarossa though was relief pitcher Matthew Polestino, who struck out four batters in 2 ⅔ innings. 
 
"I thought Polestino did a really nice job to keep the game close and give us a chance to push across a few runs," Seay continued. "It was a great bounce back outing for him after a rough first outing last weekend. We're gonna need guys like Polestino and other guys out of the pen to come in and have good outings. Either help us keep the lead, or in today's instances put some zeros on the board to give our offense a chance to tie a ball game." 
 
Saturday afternoon's loss completed a tough two days for the Hawks, who played both the Marlins and Ithaca College over the course of the last two days. On Friday, they fell to Virginia-Wesleyan 8-2 and then to the Bombers by the aforementioned 5-4 score. Saturday also marked their fourth-consecutive loss going back to Feb. 20 when SUNY New Paltz lost 8-5 to St. Mary's College of Maryland. The team will look to break its losing skid in a double-header with Mount Saint Mary March 5. The first game will be played at 11 a.m. and the second at 2 p.m. 

"We will get back at it this week and have some quality practices where we continue to stress a team-first brand of baseball, have a heightened attention to detail and to understand the quality of our practice directly impacts our ability to have success on game day," Seay said. "I really like this group. These men play hard and I feel like once we put things together more consistently, we will be right where we want to be."

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