Over spring break, the No. 18 Oswego State baseball team will take their annual trip to Florida to play a slate of games to get tuned up for the SUNYAC play.
Though the team graduated a lot of production with last season’s senior class, there is an impressive incoming class that will help shoulder the load. Upperclassmen will be taking over the heaviest on-field responsibilities and assuming leadership roles as well.
“I try to lead from example, do whatever it takes to win the game,” senior third baseman Eric Hamilton said. “One guy to the next, just do whatever it takes to win the game. I try to be the voice in the dugout, try to keep the energy high and keep it throughout the whole game.”
Hamilton is the fulcrum of the Lakers’ offense and already has three home runs through the first four games of the season.
The third baseman is coming off a historic season. In 2016, he led Oswego State and the SUNYAC with a .399 batting average, 69 hits, 55 RBIs and 13 home runs.
The Lakers have already begun their season with a road trip to Maryland and Delaware last weekend, compiling a 2-2 record in series splits with No. 24 Salisbury University and Wesley College, suffering both losses in walk-off fashion.
“It’s tough,” head coach Scott Landers said. “We came out strong. I think we did a lot of positive things from an offensive standpoint. We had some blunders and some things we gotta work on. Getting walked off on in two games is hard.”
The Lakers’ upperclassmen have a lot of experience to draw from and teach the younger members of the team, being a top SUNYAC contender for the last several years, only falling to perennial national powerhouse SUNY Cortland in the SUNYAC title game last season.
“This weekend, obviously Eric [Hamilton] hit really well,” Landers said. “Wes Randall was a spark plug for us at the top of the lineup, John Barnes hit very well behind Eric. Lukas Olsson stepped in as a freshman in his first college weekend and had a huge weekend and did a damn good job.”
Though the team brought in some freshman to be groomed, the majority of production lost will be replaced by in-house talent and transfers.
“We’re not depending on freshmen too much,” Landers said. “Kyle Dinges is our first baseman and he’s a transfer so he already has some seasoning. We got Kyle Simmons back in the middle to replace Brian Hamilton, we just kept rolling with the same guys and replenished with other guys that were transfers.”
Hamilton graduated in May 2016.
The biggest strength this year for the Lakers is their depth, which allows practice to become a ground for healthy competition among the team for playing time and forcing players to earn their way to playing time.
“We’ll always use two catchers, but I think [Olsson] has solidified himself in one of those roles at this point,” Landers said. “From a catcher standpoint, we have enough infielders to where we can move them around and do some things, so from my point of view, day after day, it’s competition.”
“We have four catchers that are good defensively and can hit a little bit, so as of right now I won’t be back there, but whenever I get called upon if I need to go back there, I can,” said Hamilton, who spent some time catching when not playing third base last season.
The outfield shares a similar scenario, with an abundance of outfielders battling for playing time.
“We have a lot of outfielders that are very capable of playing, that would start for most programs in the country,” Landers said. “They’re always battling.”
The Lakers are looking to improve on last season’s 35-11 record and NCAA tournament appearance and they are prepared to do so with the amount of star power and depth they have compiled going into the season.
