For the first time since 2016, the Oswego State baseball team lost a weekend SUNYAC series. After topping The College at Brockport on April 13 by a score of 14-4, the Lakers lost both games the next day during the double header. Oswego State now sits at 18-8 overall.
In 2016, the Lakers were swept by SUNY Cortland later in the season, with the final game on senior day. Oswego State was limited to four runs during the weekend and gave up 18 runs.
John Barnes, a sophomore at the time, went 1-9 during the weekend and was walked twice. Barnes, now a senior, said the team will be working hard the rest of the week to end the season on a strong note.
“Baseball can be a cruel sport. Sometimes you have bad games,” Barnes said. “You’ve got to hand it to Brockport. They came out tough and beat us.”
Since the series loss, Oswego State has won 10 straight conference weekends, including a series win against SUNY Cortland in 2017, winning two of the three games. Head coach Scott Landers said there are no concerns, and the team will be able to rebound after a bad weekend.
When the Lakers were swept in 2016, they went 19-90 as a team, posting a .211 batting average for the entire weekend, not just the double header.
In the two losses, a lack of hits was a deciding factor for the team’s fate, batting 12-59 collectively. Other unsuccessful aspects included crucial fielding errors and a poor opening pitching performance in game three.
“We played pretty well game one,” Landers said. “Bottom line is we got in the hole, and it took a while for the hitters to get going.”
In game three, the Lakers tried to rally against the Golden Eagles. The attempted comeback was sparked by Ryan Enos, who had a three-run home run. While it was the second of his career, his first being hit in Florida earlier in the season over spring break, Enos was glad to hit his second at the Laker Baseball Field.
At the time of the home run, the Lakers were trailing the Golden Eagles 9-1. Enos was able to knock in Lukas Olsson after his single earlier in the inning. Landers said Enos has been a strong player, especially as a freshman.
It is no secret that New York is one of the birthplaces for the wonderful sport of lacrosse. Native Americans played the great game to determine land possession, different battles and the like.
But, throughout all of New York, lacrosse sticks out like a sore thumb in the city of Syracuse. Literally in the center of the state, all of lacrosse’s great memories in New York trickle down to a city near an hour away from Oswego.
This history is not only shown in the dominant local colleges, such as NCAA Div. I powerhouse, Syracuse University, and other strong smaller programs such as Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, but in the high school level as well.
Schools like West Genesee, Baldwinsville and Skaneateles are top contenders for the New York State Public High School Athletic Association championship every year. It is hard to compete with these teams since there are numerous training camps and legends of the sport reigning in the city and surrounding suburbs.
A lot of colleges tend to recruit out of the Syracuse area for their respective men’s and women’s lacrosse teams. This trend has been followed by coaches all over the country. Those coaches include Britt Howard of the Oswego State women’s lacrosse team, and Drew Bezek of the Oswego State men’s lacrosse team.
On the women’s team, 12 of the 22 players are from what could be considered the Syracuse area, primarily from the Bishop Ludden and Bishop Grimes high schools.
For the men’s team, five players are from Syracuse, including a couple from Tully.
This trend of focusing recruiting in New York State, predominantly in the Syracuse area, has to be one of the strongest decisions these coaches have made.
While the women’s team features more local talent than the men’s team, both teams have seen success from their Syracuse athletes.
On women’s lacrosse, four of the top five point leaders are from the Syracuse area, with Teresa Shattuck, a Bishop Grimes alumna, leading the team by more than 20 points. As of April 18, Shattuck leads the team with __ points.
On the defensive side, Angela Ponto, an alumna of West Genesee, has proven to be a top goaltender for the Lakers since her freshman season, when she came in as an immediate starter. Since then, she has accumlated 530 saves. That number is still climbing. The senior has over 100 more saves than second-place Shannon O’Brien (388) who graduated in 2009.
The men’s side has not seen as much domination from Syracuse kids this season, however. Mark Niechial, a West Genesee alumnus, is eighth on the team with eight points (6g, 2a).
For a team like women’s lacrosse, which is trying to have a winning season again, and for a men’s team, who is looking to make the SUNYACs for the first time since 2009, these Syracuse kids can really boost a team’s lineup.
Luckily, Oswego State is close to home for student-athletes so they do not have to travel far away, and it also has close proximity to Onondaga Community College, a common place where many local stars from the area transfer from.
As long as Syracuse high schools keep producing quality talent, and Oswego State keeps fighting for the local talent, the lacrosse programs will see success in the near future on both sides of the ball.
“I was just trying to get on base to start something up because we were down pretty big,” Enos said. “[The ball] ended up going out.”
New York weather has not been kind to the Lakers, with numer- ous cancellations this season. This past week, games against Elmira College on April 17 and Clarkson University on April 18 were all cancelled.
Despite the cancellations, Os- wego State has been able to find a rhythm with its weekend rotation in addition to its strong offensive lineup. This weekend, the Lakers take on Plattsburgh State, who is currently last in the SUNYACs.
Even with the series loss against The College at Brockport, plans for this weekend do not change, Land- ers said.
“We’ve just got to go about our business and go out there and win,” Landers said.
After the series against the Car- dinals, the Lakers have a non-con- ference matchup against Ithaca College on April 24. But for the Lak- ers, the big series is against SUNY
Oswego State still remains in second place in the SUNYACs despite dropping two games to the Golden Eagles.
The Red Dragons and the Lakers are first and second in the SUNYACs, respectively. Last season, the Lakers finished in first place and were given the SUNYAC title, due to the tourna- ment’s cancellation.
The series comes at a critical time for both teams, since it is the last series of the regular sea- son. Under multiple circumstanc- es, there is still a chance for the
Lakers to tie or possibly overtake the Red Dragons in the SUNYACs. “We’ve been looking forward
to [the series] all year,” Barnes said. “We knew that they were at the end of the season. I’m sure they’re looking forward to it just as much as we are. It’s a big series. Everyone loves it. We’re taking it one game at a time and hopefully playing our best baseball when they come to Oswego.”
Austin Dearborn | The Oswegonian
