OSWEGO, NY — Wednesday evening, the Empire 8 Conference announced the cancellation of their fall sports for the Fall 2020 season. This unanimous decision came due to concerns of COVID-19 and the safety of student athletes. The sports that will be canceled are cross country, field hockey, football, men’s golf, men’s and women’s soccer, women’s tennis, and women’s volleyball. The conference has come out and stated that these sports will be given the opportunity to place in the Spring 2021 season if COVID-19 is less of a threat.
Although a majority of the Oswego State teams compete in the SUNYAC conference, Men’s golf is one of the few sports that is in the Empire 8 Conference. Oswego is an affiliate member of the conference, as the SUNYAC does not have a Men’s Golf Championship. The Lakers compete against Utica College, St. John Fisher College, Sage College, Elmira College, and Nazareth College in the Men’s Golf Championship. With the team playing half of their tournament in the fall, and half in the spring, the cancellation will affect the team for a portion of their season as of right now. Wresting is the only other Oswego State team in the Empire 8 conference.
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Oswego baseball: SUNYAC playoffs preview
OSWEGO, N.Y. — The Oswego State baseball team cliched the one seed in the SUNYAC playoffs over the weekend. All the games in the tournament will be played at the Laker Baseball Stadium. The tournament features three top 25 teams, Oswego (12), Cortland (13), and Brockport (22). The tournament is a double elimination style tournament with a potential seven total games being played. The first two games of the tournament will be played on Thursday, the first game will feature Oswego taking on the Plattsburgh Cardinals at noon. The second game of the day will see Cortland taking on Brockport at 3:00 P.M.
The Lakers are currently on a 20 game win streak against the Cardinals dating back to March, 2015. This season they won all three games, game one 19-6, game two 8-2, and game three 17-5. In the three games, Kyle Lauria went 9-16 (.563), and drove in eight runs in the series. Ryan Enos had four doubles in the series. Tishawn Featherstone had two home runs in the first game. The Laker pitching staff held the dangerous Alex Kornblau to 2-10 (.200) over all three games.
The Lakers are led by four dangerous hitters at the top of their lineup, Paul Tamarro, Ryan Enos, Kyle Lauria, and Lukas Olsson. Tammaro (64) and Enos (60) are one and two in the SUNYAC hits leaders. They also sit atop the batting average leader board hitting .481 and .476 respectively. Enos also sits second in the SUNYAC in doubles with 16, with Tammaro right behind at 14. Enos and Olsson are in a three way tie for fourth in the conference home runs leaders with eight each. Enos and Lauria tied for second in stolen bases at 24 each, with Tammaro in fourth with 23. Plattsburgh is led by a dangerous hitter of their own, Alex Kornblau. He is fourth in the SUNYAC in batting average (.396), fifth in doubles (11), and ninth in RBIs (33).
In the game, expect the Lakers to put Kyle Finnegan or Anthony Van Fossen on the mound. Finnegan has been the Lakers ace, with a 2.36 era in 61 innings pitched, striking out 54 batters. He pitched a majority of the seven inning games of the doubles headers, doing a complete game four of his ten starts. For the Cardinals, you may see Sean Malamud or Peter Gregory. Malamud has the most innings on the Plattsburgh staff, 56, and the lowest ERA, 4.98.
After Thursday, the loser of the Oswego-Plattsburgh game will play the loser of the Cortland-Brockport game in game one Friday. The winners of the two Thursday matchups will face off in game two Friday. The third and final game on Friday will be the winner of Friday’s first game vs the loser of Friday’s second game. Saturday will the championship matchup. It will feature the winner of Friday’s second game taking on the winner of Friday’s third game, with a potential second game being played if the team who hasn’t lost yet, the winner of Friday’s second game, loses.
PHOTO COURTESY OF WILLIAM ROGERS, WTOP10 PHOTOGRAPHY DEPARTMENT
RANKINGS COURTESY OF D3BASEBALL.COM
PLAYOFF SCHEDULE COURTESY OF SUNYACSPORTS.COM
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Oswego State Women’s Lacrosse Team Looks to End Losing Streak
OSWEGO, N.Y. — The Oswego Women’s Lacrosse team will look to avenge their 18-4 loss to Clarkson University as they battle SUNY Brockport on Saturday, April 17th. The race for the SUNYAC Championships is currently a three way battle in the west division with Brockport, Geneseo, and Oswego all being contenders for the two spots available for the postseason. Oswego has not seen the 5-1 Brockport squad yet this season, and the Lakers dropped their first game to Geneseo earlier this week. This conference matchup is important for Britt Howard and the rest of the Lakers if the group wants to remain in the hunt and make it into another post season, a streak that started back in the 2016 season. Oswego enters this matchup on two-game slide while the Golden Eagles ride a 6-game win streak which includes a 23-2 victory vs Buffalo State on April 16th.
The Lakers suffered their worst offensive performance of the season against Clarkson. They shot the ball just 16 times versus the Golden Knights, their lowest output of 2021. Although Oswego wasn’t able to score much, sophomore midfielder, Sela Wiley, continued her outstanding season, scoring 3-out-of 4 Lakers goals in the loss. Junior goalkeeper, Delaney Kendrick, will need to have a great defensive performance to suppress Brockport’s high-powered offense on Saturday. The Golden Eagles are averaging 16 points a game in 2021 and have scored 58 goals in their past three games. Four players have totaled at least 25 points for Brockport so far this season, including Cassidy Burnash (20 goals, 5 assists), Allison Jennings (18 goals, 9 assists), Natalie Strough (13 goals, 25 assists), and leading scorer Heather Conklin (33 goals, 7 assists). With only five games remaining in Oswego’s schedule, Saturday’s contest will have a pivotal impact not only on the Lakers postseason chances, but the entire SUNYAC west division standings. Face off is set for 1:00 PM at Laker Turf Stadium and WTOP 10 will have coverage of all the action.
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Game Recap: Syracuse defeats Oswego
OSWEGO, NY — Thursday evening the Oswego Boys Buccaneers Hockey team faced off against the Syracuse Cougars in a contest played inside the Crisafulli Ice Rink. The Cougars would have no problem with the Buccaneers as the game finished with a 4-0 score in favor of Syracuse. The game would be scoreless heading into the final minutes of the first period before the Cougars added to past Oswego goaltender Brandon Demling. Syracuse would continue to add to their goal total in the second period as the Cougars would tally one more before the end of stanza. Oswego would look to put one up on the scoreboard before the end of the contest but would be unsuccessful as the Cougars finished the season on a high note.
Oswego will head into Friday night’s contest at 7-7 on the season as the Buccaneers welcome Cazenovia into the Crisafulli Ice Rink. Oswego wraps up their season at home with their game against Cazenovia and then Watertown on Saturday. Tomorrow’s game is Senior Night for the Buccaneers as the team honors their seven seniors which includes captain Adam Michalski and injured Ryan Bartlett. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. from Fort Ontario and WNYO will have the game broadcasted over their airwaves. WTOP 10 will continue to cover the Oswego Buccaneers Hockey team until the season concludes on Saturday.
