Off the back of a five game stretch in which they lost 4/5, the Oswego State baseball team were looking to improve their fortunes and they had a good opportunity in front of them to do it. The Plattsburgh State Cardinals were not having as much of a banner year as they had hoped. They came into the matchup with a losing record and were a few games back of .500. The three-game series between the longtime rival schools would commence on Thursday with the doubleheader coming the following Friday. 

Thursday’s game was a high scoring affair off the bat of the Lakers, with half of their 15 runs accumulated coming into the seventh and final inning. Sean Dertinger started on the mound and kept the Cardinals scoreless through two innings. By the top of the third it was 3-0 Oswego, but Plattsburgh came back in the next two top halves to make it a tie game. From there it was a story of extending the lead for the Lakers, as they only inched ahead by one or two runs per inning. Then came the seventh. Seven runs came off the Lakers bats in that final showing, with Anthony Barone hitting a 3 RBI double after hitting a 2-run homer in the previous inning. Overall, six individual Lakers achieved RBIs, Dertinger got the win and Nick Cody got the save as the Lakers took the victory 15-5 after seven innings. 

The next day’s doubleheader proved a bit more difficult for the Lakers as the Cardinals upped their game. It was a groggy overcast day in Oswego, with some light spurts of rain but that did not stop or delay the proceedings at the Laker baseball field. The first game was a bonafide pitching duel, as Lakers pitcher Jacob Sanders pitched a complete game on the mound for Oswego and his counterpart Kaeden Clarkson pitched eight of the nine innings on the side of Plattsburgh. Sanders got nine strikeouts on the day after facing 29 batters and would only allow four total hits. Clarkson eclipsed 100 pitches and only allowed six hits the whole game. It came down to the final inning at a score of 2-2 and it was a routine pop fly from Trey McGowan that got dropped due to outfielders colliding which allowed the Lakers to seal the victory in the final inning, 3-2. 

Game two just afterwards was a similarly low scoring affair. The first three innings remained scoreless until Daniel Winchester broke the silence with an RBI single in the fourth. Two innings later, the Plattsburgh State Cardinals took the lead with two runs off of RBIs and a triple by Kornblau. It was not long until the Lakers responded, matching the Cardinals blow-for-blow in both Friday games. They tied it in the seventh at two apiece, but the top of the eighth saw a huge homer from Plattsburgh that re-established the Cardinals’ lead. Oswego was quick to respond, with a few sacrifice plays in the bottom of that same inning to wrestle back the lead at 4-3. Then in the ninth it was Owen Hoyt who came out of the bullpen and delivered a save for the Lakers, striking out one of the only three batters he faced in a near perfect 1-2-3 final inning. With his help, the Lakers swept Plattsburgh, but there was still a game left to be played a few days later.

The following Tuesday the Lakers took a quick trip to face the Tigers of Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) and they made them look like kittens. The Lakers had the game in their hands nearly from the jump, but a rally in the final few innings from RIT gave them pause for thought, but not enough to make them fear. 9-5 was the final score of a very consistent game for Oswego, scoring all throughout the game. 

Four games, four wins was just what the doctor ordered for Oswego after suffering the past week. They now sit at no. 4 in the SUNYAC, hanging with the best that the conference can offer.

Photo by: Oswego athletics