With a 11-1 record nearing the midpoint of the spring season, the Oswego State baseball team has put itself in a prime position for success. One of the biggest reasons has been the stellar cast of arms that head coach Scott Landers has to choose from.

The pitching staff has a combined ERA of 5.53, even though that may not be such a gaudy stat, its domination in games does not go unnoticed. The staff has struck out 88 batters, only given up 39 walks and 59 earned runs in 96 innings pitched. Landers has been pleased with pitching this far but highlighted that there are still things they need to work on.

“They are getting better and better,” Landers said. “Their stamina is getting better. Their velocity is getting better. We still need to improve on hit-by-pitches and walks, but I also think our defense has not helped them out at all. [Although], it is starting to get better and better.”

In order to win a SUNYAC title, a team needs to be complete and polished in every aspect. The Lakers have struggled when it comes to the defensive aspect of the game. With 17 errors accounting for 11 unearned runs, this team needs to straighten up in the field if it expects to be at the top of the SUNYAC again.

Even though the team has had some defensive struggles, the pitching staff has bailed them out. Led by many of the upperclassmen, Landers is excited about the talents he has on the mound and knows that his group is strong and deep starting with senior Ronald Loomis and junior Anthony Van Fossen.

“We have a good core of pitchers,” Landers said. “We have some unproven guys, and we are going to go as far as they take us. Loomis is seasoned, Van Fossen has come on which I expected. If you want to look at our guys from a staff standpoint, [Van Fossen] is a strike-thrower, and when you get strikes with three different pitches, usually you do not get many big numbers in your stat line … That takes a lot of pressure off our hitting and defense but with those guys, the biggest thing for us is how deep we can go regarding starting pitching.” 

Run support for pitchers has been critical to keep them afloat, but Landers thinks his team can hit even better than its current combined team average of .335.

“I would say the strength of this team right now is the offense,” Landers said. “We are not very good defensively, and we have to get better for the end of the year. The pitchers are coming along, but we have scored runs.”

While the Lakers have the third-highest combined batting average in the SUNYAC and are averaging 11.2 runs per game, Landers knows that once his team tweaks the little things, they will be in prime form to take on any opponent in the conference.

“Truthfully, I don’t think we have hit the way we should hit,” Landers said. “We are much more capable of putting up more runs than we have to be honest. Certain things we look at as coaches, offensively, we have [fixed] some things up, but we have to use the barrel a bit more.”

Oswego State’s Div. III baseball program does not have a luxurious analytics department to get a closer look at everyone’s swing. Granted, that has not stopped Landers from being able to judge if his hitters are barreling the ball up and producing good hits.

Two of the guys sporting the green and gold this season that have had the best at-bats are seniors Ryan Enos and Kyle Lauria. Enos is batting .429 in 42 at-bats and has an On-Base Plus Slugging of 1.130, while Lauria is not too far behind with a .364 average. The two have combined for 37 of the team’s 192 RBI this season and do not seem to be letting off the gas anytime soon.

 “You can just look at our top two guys from a hitting perspective, Ryan Enos and Kyle Lauria,” Landers said. “Those averages are pretty staggering right now, and I do not think they have hit to [the level] they are supposed to yet.”

As the team eyes down Brockport State on Saturday, who gave the Lakers their biggest test to date this season, Landers is sure that if his guys limit mistakes, they will find more success 

“We just have to keep getting better every day,” Landers said. “If you look at the stats, our hitting is the best. It is our strength. I would not exclude base running out of that. We can create some havoc on the bases and are starting to make less and less errors. The more aggressively we can run the bases and not make those mistakes, the more runs we can put up.”

The Oswegonian file photo from 2019