OSWEGO, N.Y — The Oswego State Lakers head into their third week of the season prepared for the start of conference play. The Lakers host SUNY Cortland in the Max Ziel Gymnasium Tuesday evening for the first time in 729 days. Oswego State kicked off the season with a 4-4 record which consisted of a successful season opener against the Keuka College Wolves. The 3-2 set win started Oswego on the right foot ahead of a weekend tournament in Morrisville. Seven contests later, Oswego will get set for a rematch against the Red Dragons after getting bounced from the post season in the opening round back in 2019.
The Red Dragons of Cortland head into the contest with an overall record of 5-2. SUNY Cortland swept the Cortland Red Dragon Classic back on Labor Day Weekend before heading on an away trip to New Jersey for a set of three games. The Red Dragons were ranked third overall in the 2021 SUNYAC Women’s Volleyball Preseason Poll back on August 25th. Oswego was ranked seventh by the head coaches in the conference.
The Lakers will look to get their first win against the Red Dragons since the 2018 season. Game one is set to begin at 6:00 p.m. in the Max Ziel Gymnasium. Oswego State fans can check out all the action on WTOP 10 via the YouTube page.
Image Provided by Alexis Fragapane, Oswego State Athletics
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Oswego State men’s basketball continues dominate run
OSWEGO N.Y. — The Oswego State men’s basketball walked into the weekend on a dominant stretch of games. A fifteen-game win streak that included seven wins by more than twenty points. A Friday night matchup against the Potsdam Bear and a Saturday afternoon bout against the Plattsburgh Cardinals became just two more games during one of the dominant stretches in program history.
Potsdam kept it close through the beginning of the first first half. The Lakers held a 9-8 lead after five minutes, and a 26-22 lead with eight and half to go. Then the Lakers found their stride. Oswego went on a 24-3 run to end the half lead by eight from Ahkee Anderson. The Lakers went to the locker rooms up 50-25. The second half was all Lakers. Oswego extended the lead to thirty-five with thirteen left to play on a Louis Fedullo layup. The bench finished the game from there, the final score 85-58. Devin Green led the Lakers with fifteen points and added 5 rebounds. Ahkee Anderson (14), Jeremiah Sparks (12), and Christian Simmons (11) all had over ten points. Brendon Mulson had six points and seven rebounds. It was also head coach Jason Leone’s 200th win as the Lakers coach.
Saturday’s matinee against the Plattsburgh Cardinals saw the Cardinals find the score board first with a layup, then quickly find themselves in a 13-2 deficit. The Lakers pushed the lead to twenty-four with six minutes left in the half, 34-10, with ten points from Jeremiah Sparks. Julien Crittendon hit two three later in the half, and the Lakers reached the fifty point mark before half time, and went to the locker rooms up 52-23. The Lakers would also have a fifty point second half, and for the third time this season would have over 100 points, winning 103-61. Julien Crittendon (18) led the Lakers in points, while Jeremiah Sparks (13) and Jamal Achille (11) were the only other Lakers with over ten points. Sixteen Lakers found the bottom of the net on the night.
Oswego now has twenty wins on the season with a perfect conference record of 14-0. They jumped up in last weeks national poll to #17. Their win streak now sits at seventeen games, the program record is nineteen straight games. The Lakers next game comes on the road in New Paltz versus against the Hawks next Friday February, 11th. WTOP 10 will have coverage of all homes games on Youtube or Twitch.
PICTURE COURTESY OF DIANA VITALE, WTOP10 PHOTOGRAPHY DEPARTMENT
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Oswego State Falls to Cortland in SUNYAC Championship
CORTLAND, N.Y. — In a thrilling three game SUNYAC Baseball Championship Series that featured 11 lead changes between the two teams, the Oswego State Baseball team was defeated by Cortland. Oswego took game one from Cortland in a late comeback fashion, but Cortland won game two in extra innings and game three to take the series. Cortland outscored Oswego 25-23 between the three games, which featured one run wins for each team in games one and two and a two run win for Cortland in the deciding game.
Game one was tied 2-2 after four innings, Kieran Finnegan had some early command issues surrendering four walks which resulted in two runs in the first inning while allowing just one hit in the frame. Finnegan bounced back well, giving up no hits in the next three innings and just one walk. Oswego’s two runs came in the top of the second on a Hunter Holliday RBI double and Julian Drew RBI single. Cortland put up two runs on four hits against Finnegan in the 5th which led to Anthony Van Fossen entering the game for the Lakers. Van Fossen was brilliant out of the bullpen as the junior threw 3.1 hitless innings for the Lakers. SUNYAC RBI leader Kyle Lauria trimmed the deficit to one run with an RBI single in the 7th, and the Lakers kept going with a big two out rally in the 8th. Oswego scored three runs in the 8th as Myles Felton scored on a wild pickoff throw to tie it, Brendon Frank singled in Paul Tammaro, and Ryan Enos followed with an RBI double to score Frank. Mike Di Salvo came in to pitch the 9th but gave up a leadoff home run to make it a one run lead for the Lakers. Di Salvo had the tying run on third base, and the winning run on second with no outs but got back to back flyouts to finish the 7-6 game one Oswego win.
The highest scoring game of the weekend came in an 11-10 extra inning walk off win for Cortland. Game two featured 31 total hits and three home runs for each team, as it was Tammaro, Ryan Weiss, and Felton each hitting long balls for the Lakers. At least one team scored in all ten innings, as Cortland had a four run and multiple three run frames scoring in bunches, but Oswego scored more consistently with one or two runs in seven of the ten innings. Frank and Weiss led Oswego’s offense as both of the seniors contributed four hits apiece. After ten innings and a ton of offense, it was Scott Giordano from Cortland with a walkoff home run forcing a decisive game three the following day.
Oswego and Cortland had identical runs scored in each frame from the 1st to 4th, as the game was tied 5-5 after four innings. Oswego scored one in the top of the 5th but Cortland answered back with two runs of their own in the bottom of the frame that would be the tying and eventual winning run, before tacking on an insurance run in the 6th. Enos was 3-4 with a home run, a double, and 4 RBIs in the final game of the series but it was not enough as Cortland took game three 8-6 to win the SUNYAC Championship.
The season is not over yet for Oswego as the Lakers got an at-large bid into the 48 team NCAA Division III Baseball Championship. There are eight separate locations with six teams at each site; the winning team from each of the eight sites will compete in the Division III World Series in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Oswego was selected to be the second seed at the Hartford, Connecticut Region which is being hosted by Trinity College (Connecticut), a team that Oswego was scheduled to play against earlier this year. The teams in order of seeds 1-6 playing at the Hartford Regional are Southern Maine, Oswego State, Wheaton (Massachusetts), Salve Regina, Husson, Johnson & Wales (Providence). This is Oswego’s sixth consecutive season qualifying for the Championship, and the Lakers are looking for their first World Series appearance since 2018. Games will take place Thursday, May 27th through Sunday, May 30th and Oswego will play their first game at 2:30 p.m. on Thursday.
Image Provided by Alexis Fragapane, Lexi Fragapane Photography
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Hockey is back in full swing
OSWEGO — It’s that time of year again! It’s Hockey Season! As both the Oswego State Men’s and Women’s teams will take the ice this weekend at home in exhibitions. The women will get it started at 3 p.m. on Saturday afternoon, going up against the London Jr. Deviletes. The men will then follow at 7 p.m., as they host Nazareth College. Saturday will also see the opening of the new History of Hockey display in the arena, which will pay homage to Laker’s hockey, past, and present.
