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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Oswego Men’s Hockey gets set for game against Geneseo
OSWEGO, NY — Men’s Hockey returns home after a successful trip to the North Country last weekend. The Laker’s wins over Potsdam and Plattsburgh secures the team in second place in the SUNYAC standings behind Geneseo, their competition Friday night. The Knights are currently ranked in third in the nation as the team holds a 15-3-2 record. Geneseo is coming off two wins in central New York as the team defeated Morrisville 6-0 and 8-3. However, Geneseo is only two points ahead of Oswego in the standings as the Lakers have played on less conference game than the Knights. This battle Friday is set to decide who will take the first seed heading into the playoffs. With Oswego not being ranked nationally, the Lakers only chance to make the NCAA tournament this season is through the conference’s automatic bid, in which the team must go through Geneseo to do so.
The last time these two teams met was back in November when the Lakers traveled to Geneseo for a Saturday night faceoff. However, the 1-9 loss was a major setback to the season as the team would go on a three game losing streak all against nationally ranked teams. But Oswego currently is on a three game win streak that has been on the back of new starting goalie Steven Kozikoski.
Friday Night’s game will be the first game of the second semester as students are back on campus. You can expect a packed Marano Campus Center as Oswego hasn’t beaten the Knights since the 2017-18 season. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. and coverage can be found on WTOP 10 and WNYO.
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Lakers baseball takes cares of business in weekend sweep
NEW PALTZ, NY – The Oswego Lakers baseball team travelled to New Paltz, N.Y this weekend to play the New Paltz Hawks in a weekend series. The series started friday where the series started slow with both teams unable to score a run in the first two innings. Oswego the broke things open when in the top of the third inning the Lakers scored four runs. The inning started off with the Hawks walking Brian Brezosky. The Hawks then matched the Lakers in the bottom of the third inning with four runs of their own. The offensive prowess continued when Tishawn Featherstone hit a homerun in the top of the fourth, bringing in two runs for the Lakers and giving them the lead again.A single to left field by Blake VanDreason gave the Lakers a third run in the fourth inning, bringing in Parliment for his second score of the game. The offensive showing kept coming as New Paltz earned five runs in the bottom of the fourth and took a two run lead over the Lakers. Both teams then went quiet for four innings until Oswego scored 7 runs in the top of the eighth inning behind a home run by Jelani Hamer tying the game at 10. Later in the inning, McCarthy hit a double to right field, bringing in two runners and the last run of the game would come from a sacrifice fly by Drew, which brought in Anthony Barone and gave the Lakers a 14-10 lead. The Lakers would shut out the Hawks for the rest of the game and win the game 14-10. Hamer led the Lakers at the plate, going four for six at-bat, earning three RBIs, scoring two runs, and hitting one home run.
The Lakers then moved to saturday where they had a doubleheader against the Hawks. In the first inning, the Hawks struggled on the mound walking three batters to give Oswego bases loaded with just one out. Owen Parliment was at bat with one out and bases loaded, Parliament theb hit a grand slam to put the Lakers up 4-0 early. In the top of the third, Parliment would come up to bat again with a runner on first. He would continue his big day hitting his second home run of the day giving the Lakers a six run lead. In the same inning Frank Levanti would double to third base bringing in another run for the Lakers. Jelani Hamer would continue his weekend giving Oswego a nine run lead with a sacrifice fly out to center field, Levanti was brought in by Hamer. In the same inning t he Hawks walked Levanti with the bases loaded which earned a run for Oswego, bringing in Parliment. Oswego had a ten run lead going into the fifth inning.
Oswego didn’t score again until the top of the seventh inning. Bringing in two RBIs off a single to left field was none other than Parliment. New Paltz could not get anything on the board as Oswego held on to get the 12-0 shutout victory over the Hawks in game one. Kieran Finnegan received the victory on the mound, recording seven strikeouts in five innings. Sean Clifford came in to replace Finnegan and recorded three strikeouts in two innings. Parliament led the Lakers at the plate, going four for four on the day, hitting two home runs, earning eight RBIs, and scoring three runs as they head into game 2
It was the same theme for the Lakers in game two, jumping out to a commanding ten run lead in the first inning. Hamer hit a two-run home run to open up the scoring for Oswego, bringing in Brezosky. A double by Parliment set the Lakers up to score with runners on second and third. Jacob Levine earned two RBIs off a single to left field, giving the Lakers a four run lead. With runners on first and third, Greg Carullo singled to left field, bringing in another runner for Oswego. Sam Allen gave the Lakers a six run lead with a single to center field, bringing in CJ Mccarthy. Oswego jumped out to an eight run t lead in the first off a single by Brezosky, bringing in two runners. The Hawks then walked in two and gained a ten run lead. The Hawks scored two runs of their own in the bottom of the first inning, cutting the Laker lead to eight.
In the top of the second, Oswego earned just one run, coming from a wild pitch by the Hawks. New Paltz scored two runs in the bottom of the second, making the score 11 to 4. In the next inning, the Lakers added four more runs. The Hawks earned three more runs in the bottom of the fourth, giving them seven runs through four and Oswego scored their final run in the top of the sixth inning, with Featherstone scoring an unearned run from an error by New Paltz. The Hawks continued to climb back into the game, with a pair of runs earned in the bottom of the sixth inning, and one run in the bottom of the seventh. The Hawks trailed by six with two innings left. New Paltz scored their final run in the bottom of the eighth inning, falling to the Lakers by five. The final score was 16 Oswego, 11 New Paltz. Anthony Van Fossen got the win on the mound for game two, recording one strikeout in one inning. Six other pitchers saw the mound in game two, combining for a total of six strikeouts. Three Lakers tied with two hits each to lead Oswego at the plate. Those players were Brezosky, McCarthy, and Carullo. Brezosky earned two RBIs and one run, McCarthy earned one RBI and three runs, and Carullo earned one RBI and one run.
Oswego moves to .500 at 11-11 and will stay on the road and take on the University of Rochester on Wednesday, April 12th.
IMAGE PROVIDED BY OSWEGO ATHLETICS
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Oswego State women’s hockey sweeps weekend
OSWEGO, N.Y. — The Oswego State women’s hockey team started their season red hot this weekend. They played their first game of the season Friday night in the Deborah F. Stanley Arena against King’s College. The Women would come out firing with an 18-0 victory. The Lakers would score five in the first period, followed by nine in the second, and four in the third. Five players had two goals, with Kyleigh Grugin and Amanda Zenstein adding three assists to their two goals each. Those two players would lead the team with five points each.
The women’s hockey team would come back to the rink Saturday afternoon to take on Neumann University. They would come down to earth with a 7-0 win. The players were wearing their pink jerseys for their “Pink the Rink” promotion in support of those fighting Cancer, Cancer survivors, and those lost by Cancer. The first period was dominated in the Oswego offensive zone, with the women getting off fourteen shots to Neumann’s one, but couldn’t score. Megan Teachout would open the scoring for the Lakers about five minutes into the second period, her first of two on the night. Oswego would score four in the second period, followed by three in the third. Morgan Shines would also have two goals in the contest, both coming in the second period.
The Oswego State women’s hockey team’s next game is against Adrian College in Adrian, Michigan on Friday at 3 P.M.
Image Provided by Shelby Peplowski, WTOP 10 Photography Department
