The nationally-ranked Oswego State baseball team lost 3-1 in the final round of the SUNYAC Championship to No. 1/1 Cortland at the Red Dragons' Wallace Field on Sunday afternoon. Cortland goes to 37-5 on the year and wins its sixth-straight SUNYAC crown while the Lakers drop to 32-9 on the year. The Red Dragons earn the conference automatic bid to the NCAA Championship. Oswego will await its fate when the NCAA releases its championship field late next Sunday, May 15.
Following the tournament, Zach Kollar, Wes Randall and Eric Hamilton were named to the SUNYAC All-Tournament Team. Hamilton set the Oswego single-season record for hits in a year with his infield single on Saturday, bringing his total to 62, one more than Laker Hall of Famer Mark Levine's 1985 campaign.
The Lakers' lone run came in the eighth inning as Brian Hamilton drove in Robert Donnelly from third on a ground out. Donnelly had reached on a walk and then advanced to third on a Wes Randall double to centerfield. In the ninth, Jordan Giller and John Barnes worked back-to-back, one-out walks to bring the go ahead run to the plate. A strikeout and fly out ended Oswego's threat and the contest.
Giller finished 2-for-2 with a double and two walks to lead Oswego at the plate. Randall, B. Hamilton and Kutscher each had one hit to round out the Lakers' five total hits on the day.
On the mound, Nathan Boughton threw 5.2 solid innings in the loss for the Lakers, allowing just three runs on three hits. Two of those runs came on a homer to left field which seemed to be a pop-out but was carried by wind just over Kutscher's outstretched arm at the fence. John-Michael Guarino relieved Boughton and wrapped the final 2.1 innings, surrendering just one hit and zero runs.
