CORTLAND, N.Y.- Oswego wins its first State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) baseball title since 1996 and 11th overall. They completed three games Saturday for the win as they defeated New Paltz 4-2 in a game that was halted Friday due to rain. They followed that up with two dominating wins over the one seed Cortland to win the championship.
The first game of the day was the game from last night that was stopped in the top of the sixth with Oswego winning 4-0 over New Paltz. New Paltz scored two runs in the seventh to make things interesting in the last two innings. Oswego held on to win 4-2 to advance on to play Cortland.
Oswego dominated the second game of the day with a 15-2 win over Cortland to force a final winner-take-all game to see who the champion would be. Cortland scored in the bottom of the first on a Patrick Schetter sack fly to go up 1-0. Oswego then scored 15 straight runs from the second inning to the sixth inning with a seven-spot in the top of the sixth. Oswego was led by Zach Whelan who had a home run, three hits, and 5 RBIs. Cortland would add one in the bottom of the sixth inning.
In the winner-take-all third game of the day, Oswego beat Cortland 14-4. Oswego got it started in the top of the second with a single from Kevin Hylas that drove in a run. In the top of the fourth Oswego's John Barnes doubled in a run and Kevin Hylas added another run with an RBI single. Oswego wasn't done there, Lukas Olsson added two more with a single to left field and Ryan Enos singled to center driving in a run as the Laker's went up 6-0. The Lakers added another run in the top of the seventh with an Eli Holton single to left. Cortland got on the board in the bottom of the eighth with a Colin Bevard single to right scoring a run and a Justin Teague sack fly to right.
The Red Dragons added two more in the bottom of the eighth with a Patrick Schetter double. The Lakers answered right back in the top of the ninth with an Eli Holton three-run home run and another Lukas Olsson single that drove in a run. The Lakers couldn't be stopped in the top of the ninth as Brandon Nicholson added three more on his three-run double to right as Oswego went up 14-4, which they would hold on to and win the SUNYAC title.
The SUNYAC Elite 20, an award modeled after the NCAA ELITE 90 program, recognizes the true essence of the student-athlete by honoring the individual who has reached the pinnacle of competition at the conference championship level in his or her sport, while also achieving the highest academic standard among his or her peers. This year's baseball honoree is Andrew Barnes from Cortland.
2018 SUNYAC Baseball All-Tournament Team
Zach Whelan, Oswego
Matt Bowman, Oswego
Nick DeMarco, Oswego
Reston Pettit, Oswego
Myles Kutscher, Oswego
Christian Dufresne, Cortland
Mike Harrington, Cortland
Joe Tardif, Cortland
Alex Brown, Brockport
Conor Donachie, New Paltz
MVP-Kevin Hylas, Oswego
