GENESEO, N.Y. — The Oswego State Men’s Lacrosse team will look for their first win of the 2021 season as they take on the SUNY Geneseo Knights on Saturday, April 24th. Oswego lost their first matchup against the Knights 19-8 just a few days prior on April 22nd, and will be out for revenge on Saturday.
The 2021 season for Oswego Men’s Lacrosse is one the Lakers will look to bounce back from, though they still have two games remaining. The Lakers come into Saturday’s contest on a 5-game losing streak, with their last victory being on March 7, 2020, against SUNY Morrisville. Although Oswego has already been eliminated from the postseason, Coach Drew Bezek will still be looking for competitive play out of his young players, like Lucas Cioch. Cioch leads the Lakers in points, including 7 goals and 5 assists. Junior attackman, Weston Gray, will look to continue his hot streak versus Geneseo as he totaled 5 goals and 1 assist in their last matchup. The Knights will be lead by their dynamic attackman trio of Kevin Cook, James Pratt, and Tim Fallo. Cook leads the team in goals with 17 and all three players have totaled over 20 points this season (Cook- 21, Pratt- 21, Fallo- 28). Oswego senior goalkeeper, Kevin O’Donnell, will have a to have a better defensive performance along with the rest of the defense in order for the Lakers to get an upset victory.
While Oswego will look to play the role of spoiler on Saturday, Geneseo needs a win to keep pace with SUNY Cortland in the west division. Geneseo could still pass Cortland for the first seed in the west division heading into the SUNYAC Championship. Faceoff is set for 1:00 p.m. at Geneseo for a SUNYAC West matchup.
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SUNYAC cancels Fall 2020 Season
OSWEGO, NY — After many athletic conferences across the United States begin to cancel or postpone the Fall 2020 season due to COVID-19, the SUNYAC Conference announced on Monday, July 20th, the cancellation of the fall season for member institutions. This decision was made by the SUNYAC Presidents in conjunction with the SUNYAC Board of Directors. This comes after the Empire 8, a local New York Division III conference, announced the postponement of the Fall 2020 season on July 16th. The SUNYAC has decided to cancel all competition till January 2021, which includes winter sports. The report, found on the conference website, states that teams can continue small team workouts when school is back in session. There are still questions regarding the winter sports season that has been pushed off, but time will tell what changes will be made moving forward.
Of course, this will affect Oswego State Athletics for the time being, as most of the teams are a part of that conference. WTOP 10 will continue to have updates on the situation as students return to college around the end of August.
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A Look Ahead: Oswego State men’s basketball in the SUNYAC and the national rankings
OSWEGO N.Y. — The Oswego State men’s basketball team is in the midst of an all time great season. They currently sit a 16-1 and are on a thirteen game winning streak. They are first in the SUNYAC with a three game lead over SUNY New Paltz and SUNY Oneonta who both sit at 7-3 in the conference. Oneonta comes to Oswego on Friday and are on a five game win streak. New Paltz comes to town Saturday to take on the Lakers, they have back to back wins. Potsdam and Geneseo sit fourth and fifth in the standings, they are followed by Brockport, Cortland, Fredonia, Plattsburgh, and Buffalo State.
The Lakers have eight games left before the SUNYAC playoffs at the end of February. They play Oneonta and New Paltz twice in that span, with games against Potsdam, Plattsburgh, Brockport and Fredonia mixed in. Oswego currently boasts three double digit per game scorers in Senior Julien Crittendon (12.4), Junior Devin Green (11.6), and Sophomore Jeremiah Sparks (11.2). Senior Brendon Mulson has also been an effective scorer at 9.6 points per game, and the recent emergence of Senior Christian Simmons also sees him at 9.6 points per game. He also boasts doubles-doubles in his the last two games. Oswego is the best scoring team in the SUNYAC at 78.8 PPG. They are also the best defensive team in the SUNYAC at 59.8 points against per game, that is also sixth best in Division 3. The team has four players above five rebounds per game, Sparks (6.6), Simmons (6.3), Mulson (5.9), and Green (5.4). Oswego is currently the second best rebounding team in the SUNYAC at 42.9 per game.
The Lakers success was finally rewarded with a national ranking two weeks ago. The team had hovered just outside of the rankings for a few weeks before finally cracking the top 25 with number 25 last week, then jumping up to 22 this week (you can find the rankings here: https://d3hoops.com/top25/men/2021-22/week7). The resume includes the undefeated conference play, and a win against a then ranked Rensaellar Polytechnic Institute, their lone loss coming to a ranked Nazareth (25). With most likely four weeks left of rankings, the Lakers look to climb higher up. The teams around them include the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor (21) and Wesleyan University (20) above, and Augsburg (23) and Emory University (24) below.
WTOP10 will have continuing coverage of the Oswego State men’s basketball team. Tune in for all home games on YouTube or Twitch.
IMAGE PROVIDED BY SHELBY PEPLOWSKI, WTOP10 PHOTOGRAPHY DEPARTMENT
SUNYAC STANDINGS PROVIDED BY SUNYAC WEBSITE
NATIONAL RANKINGS PROVIDED BY D3HOOPS.COM
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Oswego State baseball wins biggest series of Year
OSWEGO N.Y. — The biggest and most anticipated series of the season finally came for the Lakers. The #5 ranked Cortland Red Dragons travelled up 1-81 to take on the Lakers at the Laker Baseball Stadium. The three game set started with game one Friday afternoon, and games two and three Saturday.
Game one started fast, with the Red Dragons finding the scoreboard in the top off the first inning. A lead off single, was then moved to second on a sac bunt. The runner would score on an ensuing single, and the Red Dragons took an early 1-0 lead. In the top of the third the Red Dragons struck again. A lead off double would move to third on a pass ball in the next at bat. After a foul out, a fly out to center would be deep enough to score the runner and Cortland took a 2-0 lead. It was the bottom of the third when the Lakers finally struck. Paul Tammaro led off with a triple. Ryan Enos‘s double drove him home for the Lakers first run. After a strike out, Lukas Olsson hit a two run home-run to give the Lakers a 3-2 lead. After a scoreless fourth and fifth, the Red Dragons found the scoreboard again in the sixth. They crossed the plate three times, but the Lakers weren’t letting them keep it for long. A Ryan Weiss lead off homer got the scoring starting in the bottom of the sixth. Julian Drew then got hit by a pitch. Two groundouts moved Drew to third and he was brought home by a wild pitch. After a walk and a bunt single, Ryan Enos drove home the sixth run on a single to center. Cortland tied it a six in the top of the seventh. It took until the top of the tenth for any runs to be scored. A lead off single moved to second on a sac bunt. A double drove him home, and Cortland grabbed a 7-6 lead. In the top of the tenth, Frank Levanti reached on an error to start the inning. Paul Tammaro moved him to second on a sac bunt. A Ryan Enos walk put runners on first and second. Kyle Lauria grounded into a fielder’s choice putting runners at first and third for Lukas Olsson. Olsson walked it off with a three run bomb, Oswego winning 9-7. Paul Tammaro and Lukas Olsson led the team with three hits each. Olsson also led the team with 5 RBIs. Jacob Sanders got the start for the Lakers, throwing 5 innings, allowing five runs, four earned, on seven hits and two walks, striking out three.
Game two of the series started just like the first, Cortland finding the scoreboard first. The first two batter of the inning would groundout, but three two-out singles brought home the first run of the game. Oswego answered right away. The first three batters for Oswego reached, loading the bases. A Lukas Olsson single brought home the first run for the Lakers, and the next at bat Ryan Weiss would clear the bases with a grand slam giving the Lakers a 5-1 lead after one. Cortland fought back in the second. The lead-off hitter reached on an error, and a home run in the next at bat brought the lead down to 5-3. In the bottom of the second, the first two batters would reach for Oswego. A Kyle Lauria single brought home the sixth run for the Lakers. After Lukas Olsson was intentionally walked, a passed ball brought home the seventh run. A few batters later, another passed ball brought home the final run if the inning for the Lakers. Cortland kept the pressure up in the third. A one-out grand slam brought the deficit down to 8-7. After all the fireworks of the first few frames, no runs were scored after the top of the third, and the Lakers won the seven inning game one of the double header. Paul Tammaro led the Lakers in hits, going 4-4 and scoring two runs. Ryan Weiss‘s four RBIs were enough to lead the Lakers. Kyle Finnegan got the start for Oswego, going 5.1 innings. He allowed eight runs, seven earned, on eight hits and two walks, striking out two. He was relieved by Ben Wilcox who pitched the final 1.2 innings allowing one hit and striking out three.
The final game of the series had the Lakers looking for their brooms going for the sweep. Unlike the previous two games, the first run wasn’t scored until the bottom of the fifth inning. Tim Shinto was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning. He would score in the next at bat on a series of errors by Cortland. Two consecutive walks would load the bases for Kyle Lauria who would also walk, to bringing home the second run. Lukas Olsson would follow the third consecutive walk with a grand slam, giving the Lakers a 6-0 lead. Cortland found their stride in the top of the sixth, bringing home four runs. Oswego scored two in the bottom of the sixth to extend the lead to 8-4. A scoreless seventh and eight led to the top of the ninth. A lead-off walk was followed by a two run homer, bringing the lead down to 8-6. Three straight walks, loaded the bases, and a wild pitch brought home the seventh run, with still no outs. Another walk reloaded the bases, before the Lakers finally got the first out on a strike out. A passed ball allowed the another runner to score, tying the game. A another strike out, was followed by a single, bringing home two, and Cortland took the lead 10-8. Oswego got two runners on base in the bottom of the ninth, but couldn’t get them across the plate, and the late rally by Cortland getting them the win and avoiding a sweep. Three Lakers tied for the lead in hits with 2. Lukas Olsson led the way with six RBIs. Anthony Van Fossen got the start on the mound for Oswego. He pitched 5.2 innings, allowing four runs, all earned, on seven hits and no walks, striking out three.
The Lakers are now 24-8 (13-2 SUNYAC). Oswego has four games left this season, a mid-week matchup with #20 St. John Fisher at home, and final three game set with the Fredonia Blue Devils in Fredonia next weekend. As of May 3, the Lakers climbed up to #14 in the country, and Cortland fell to #13 after the losses to the Lakers.
IMAGE COURTESY OF OSWEGO ATHLETICS
