The Oswegonian

The Independent Student Newspaper of Oswego State

DATE

Dec. 26, 2024

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Five takeaways from Day 1 of SUNYAC Baseball Championships

Zach Kollar (13) went 2-4 on the day for the Lakers with one long ball. He also committed two errors. (Andrew Pugliese | The Oswegonian)
Zach Kollar (13) went 2-4 on the day for the Lakers with one long ball. He also committed two errors. (Andrew Pugliese | The Oswegonian)

Cortland — The No. 1 team in the nation, the SUNY Cortland Red Dragons, knocked off the SUNY Fredonia Blue Devils after a six-run seventh inning to push themselves one step closer to repeating as SUNYAC Champions. They mounted a comeback to win 8-1. The second game of the day featured The College at Brockport Golden Eagles topping the Oswego State Lakers by a score of 10-8. The No. 7 ranked Lakers failed to climb out of the 7-3 hole they put themselves in to drop into the loser’s bracket.

Crooked Numbers

During both games, all four teams put up a combined six crooked numbers on the scoreboard. Brockport led this category with three. The Golden Eagles put up a three-spot, a two-spot and another three-spot on the Lakers to help defeat them for the first time this year. Cortland had back-to-back innings with a crooked number placed on the scoreboard. Seth Lamando’s single that drove in two runs turned out to be all the Red Dragons needed, but they racked up six more the next frame to blowout the Blue Devils.

Rain Delays

Both games experienced rain delays today. This may have been a factor and reason why eight errors were committed on the day between the four teams. Oswego State and Brockport were victims of six of them and seemed to have had the brunt of the poor weather.

Odd Day for Second Basemen

Wesley Burghardt committed three errors during his team’s win. His counterpart, Zach Kollar, committed two errors on the day as well. What they lacked on the field was made up for at the plate. Kollar hit the only home run of the day and went 2-4 at the dish with 2 RBI. Burghardt continued his solid year at the plate as well. He went 2-5 with and drove in two big runs in the third inning.

Still Undefeated

Taylor Whiteman (29) helped propel the Red Dragons to a victory on day 1 with nine stellar innings. (Photo provided by Taylor Clock)
Tanner Whiteman (29) helped propel the Red Dragons to a victory on day 1 with nine stellar innings. (Photo provided by Taylor Clock)

Taylor Whiteman improved to 7-0 on the year in his complete game today for SUNY Cortland. He hurled nine innings of one-run baseball while allowing six hits. He also fanned six in his stellar outing.

Keeping It Close

The Blue Devils were leading their game up until the sixth inning. Taylor Jordon kept the hot-hitting Red Dragons to only three hits through five frames. SUNY Cortland finally did explode, but SUNY Fredonia being able to keep this one close shows that no team in this tournament is easy to beat.