The No. 12/14 Oswego State baseball team narrowly missed a season series sweep of its rival, No. 4/5 Cortland, in a 5-3 Red Dragon walk-off in the bottom of the 11th inning on Sunday at Wallace Field. With the tough loss, the Lakers are now 23-8 on the year and 12-3 in the SUNYAC while Cortland goes to 29-7 while wrapping its conference slate 14-4.
Oswego had two outs in the bottom of the 11th inning when Matt Zakala induced a ground ball to second base. An error allowed the Cortland batter to reach first and continue the frame. On an 0-1 count, Cortland's C. BeVard homered to left center to stun the Lakers and walk-off with the victory. Zakala was charged with the loss, despite not allowing an earned run while facing two batters.
The Lakers got on the board first, as Kyle Dinges was plated by a little base hit to first from Eric Hamilton in the sixth inning. Cortland wasted no time erasing the deficit, scoring two in the bottom of the inning to gain a 2-1 advantage. In the top of the ninth, John Barnes lead off with a single and Mike Dellicarri followed with a double. Back-to-back sacrifice flies from Zach Kollar and Alex Brown put Oswego in control 3-2. Again the Red Dragons were opportunistic, opening the bottom of the inning with a double. Cortland then advanced to third on an errant pickoff attempt and eventually scored via a wild pitch to push the game to extras.
Hamilton and Dinges led the way at the plate, each collecting two hits. Kyle Simmons, Eli Holton, Josh Hoagland, Barnes and Dellicarri had one hit apiece, helping in the nine-hit team total.
On the mound, Robert Donnelly was a work horse in just his second start of the season. The junior tossed nine innings, striking out three while allowing just two earned runs. Donnelly threw 114 pitches and scattered nine Cortland hits in the no-decision in relief, Charles Arcuri threw 0.1 innings and allowed two walks before making way for Andrew Morano. Morano worked out of the jam without any damage, including a strikeout to end the threat.
Oswego will now play two mid-week nonconference games – starting at 4 p.m. on Tuesday at home against Ithaca College – before it hosts Oneonta in a three-game weekend series on Friday and Saturday. The Lakers will look to garner the No. 1 seed in May's SUNYAC Championship in the series with the Red Dragons.
