NEW PALTZ, NY – The State University of New York at New Paltz baseball team looks to stay in the win column with a trio of road games against 10-3 Oswego State on April 2 and 3. Due to weather and field conditions, the matchup was pushed to a Saturday-Sunday slate with the teams playing a doubleheader starting at 1 p.m. Saturday and a single game Sunday at 12 p.m. All three games will be held at Maine-Endwell High School in Endwell, NY. 

The Hawks defeated St. Joseph's College-Brooklyn rather easily on March 30 by a score of 16-9, snapping their four-game losing streak in the process and improving their record to 4-9. On Wednesday, Justin Ortiz and Michael Boccarrosa were the catalysts offensively. Ortiz went 3-for-6 with two RBI while Boccarrosa went 3-for-5 with three RBI. Each player also had a double. Jesse Keshner, who was the designated hitter on the day, had a spectacular game, hitting two home runs and tallying three RBI. Dean Stalzer hit his team-leading fourth home run, while Jordan Rios also homered. 

SUNY New Paltz will look to build off Wednesday's strong performance with an offensive attack that was great against the Bears. The team registered 14 hits, and 12 runs over the sixth, seventh, and eighth innings, with six of those runs coming in the bottom of the seventh. 
 

Billy Moeller has been SUNY New Paltz's best pitcher thus far, leading in earned run average, innings pitched, and strikeouts. He possesses a .240 earned run average over 30 innings, has given up just 21 hits and has struck out 34 batters. Opposing hitters have only averaged .202 against him. Wednesday's win was earned by Nick Harvey, who pitched two hitless innings with a strikeout. His brother Justin struck out two in two innings of work. 

The Lakers, meanwhile, have the third best record in the SUNYAC, behind 16-6 SUNY Cortland and 13-2 The College at Brockport. Oswego, as of March 29, led the conference in runs with 347 and is second in hits with 381. The Lakers are second in RBI with 300 and their collective .355 batting average also leads the conference. 

After starting the season off 1-2 with three games against No. 1 ranked Salisbury University, the club scored 27 runs in a 27-14 victory over Keystone College on March 5. The win was the first of eight consecutive victories, one of which was another contest where they produced over 20 runs in a 22-14 win over Salve Regina. After losing 15-5 to nationally ranked Southern Maine University and defeating nationally ranked Johns Hopkins 6-4, the Lakers had their last two scheduled games, a home doubleheader against SUNY Cobleskill on March 30, postponed. 

At the head of the offensive snake for the group is Ryan Enos, who is batting a blistering .558 thus far. In 52 at-bats, he has 29 hits, five of which are home runs. He also has seven doubles, a stat that makes it easy to understand how he has 22 RBI. Paul Tammaro, Oswego State's second most prolific hitter, is batting .426 with four home runs, 10 RBI, five doubles, and 23 hits. Julian Drew and Kyle Lauria are both tied for third on the team in hits with 17. Drew's 15 RBI are second. 

In the pitching department, Keiran Finnegan leads in starts with four. With a record of 1-0, he has a 2.78 earned run average and has struck out 24 batters and given up 27 hits. He would figure to be a tough challenge for the Hawks offense, as would Tony Poveda, who has struck out nine batters in just 7 ⅔ innings, giving up four hits and two earned runs. Connor VanDreason, who in four appearances is 1-0 with eight strikeouts over just 6 ⅔ innings with one save, is also someone SUNY New Paltz may have to deal with.

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