By Benjamin Diamond

After a hiatus that lasted over a week, the Oswego State baseball team finally got back into action versus SUNY New Paltz, University of Rochester and St. John Fisher. 

The teams’ series versus New Paltz was their first conference matchup of the season and the Lakers came out flying. The Lakers swept the three game series scoring over ten runs twice and shutting out the Hawks 2-0. 

Head coach Scott Landers knew there were things that his team needed to do in the time between their Florida road trip and the series versus New Paltz. He and the team used that time to improve themselves and keep themselves ready for the rest of the season.

“We had to get healthy,” Landers said. “We are getting there. But we had five or six guys banged up coming out of Florida. But we just had to get healthy. The weather didn’t help us, so we used that time to rest up and get ready to get back into what we started. I don’t think it was anything different than how we prepare for the beginning of the season.

Although health had been a problem coming out of Florida, Landers said that he was still able to put different players into certain spots and it still worked out. 

Although the New Paltz series went well for Oswego State, the matchups versus the University of Rochester and St. John Fisher did not go as well as the team had hoped. The Lakers dropped the game versus Rochester 8-4 and the game to St. John Fisher 7-6. Both relatively close and winnable games, but they were unable to get the job done.

Landers said that the team is going to take these losses in stride and come out with a different mindset as the season progresses.

“I think we have to figure some things out,” Landers said. “We are learning some things about the team in a hard way from the last two days. But we will be alright, we just have to move forward and get everybody clicking on all cylinders again.”

For the Plattsburgh series, Landers says he wants his team to start focusing on winning each inning, and taking it one step at a time. In their past two games, the Lakers fell down early to their opponents and needed to claw back from large deficits early in each game. Landers says that once the team starts to click earlier in games, the more successful they will be.

No team wants to drop two games in a row, so it is important for the team’s veteran leaders to lift the spirits of the younger players and make sure they know it is not the end of the world. Laker shortstop Paul Tammaro has the mindset that they will take care of business when it comes time to get back out on the field.

“Based on previous years, just getting back into the swing of things, focus up at practice and tighten up what we need to,” Tammaro said. “I don’t think we have been playing bad but, we just dropped two baseball games, we will come back this weekend and take care of business.”

Tammaro has had himself a very productive year at the plate so far. During the New Paltz series, Tammaro batted .500, with two doubles, six runs and one RBI. On the season, Tammaro is batting .457 with a 1.311 OPS, 31 runs, 32 hits and 12 stolen bases. He has been a staple of Landers’ lineup with his consistent production at the top of the batting order. 

Although the Lakers have played 18 games so far this season, they have yet to play one on their home turf. Starting pitcher Kieran Finnegan believes that once the team starts to play at home, they will start to get on a roll.

“Yeah it will be fun,” Finnegan said. “It’s always fun playing at home, and once the field is playable, everyone will start to get dialed. 

Finnegan does enjoy playing at home but he also enjoys playing on the road. Versus New Paltz, Finnegan was lights out pitching 7.0 innings, with three hits, one walk, no earned runs and seven strikeouts. He looks to continue his strong pitching for the home crowd.

Tammaro also mentioned that it would be a nice change of pace to not have to sit on a bus back and forth for every series. He is also excited to play in front of the home fans for the first time during the 2022 season.

The Lakers are set to face the Plattsburgh Cardinals on Friday, April 8, with a Saturday double header on April 9, as they look to right the ship and return to their winning ways. The Lakers are 26-21 all-time versus the Cardinals, and have won the last 17 games against them.

Photos provided by Oswego State Athletics