The Oswego State baseball team's valiant comeback came up just shy, as the second-seeded Lakers dropped their opening game of the SUNYAC Championship 8-7 to No. 3 Brockport at top-seeded Cortland's Wallace Field on Friday afternoon. Oswego's loss drops its season mark to 24-10 while the Golden Eagles go to 20-15.
After battling through some danger in the first two innings, the Lakers surrendered a run with two outs on an error in the third inning. It didn't take long for Oswego to answer, as in the bottom of the frame, Myles Kutscher sent the first pitch screaming over the left-field fence. Junior Jordan Giller nearly made it back-to-back jacks when he drove a ball deep to center that found the base of the wall for a double. A John Rauseo sacrifice bunt pushed Giller to third before Kyle Liner's sacrifice fly scored the junior for the Lakers to capture a 2-1 edge.
Oswego managed the advantage for an inning before a two-out, bloop single scored the Golden Eagle tying run in the fourth. With the score still knotted in the fifth, Brockport put together six runs on six hits to pull away. Senior Dan Saccocio walked to start the bottom of the inning and eventually scored on an error to cut the deficit to five.
The Lakers started to climb back into the contest in the sixth with two outs and runners on second and third. Saccocio singled through the left side to bring in Liner and Wes Randall, who doubled earlier in the inning, making it an 8-5 Brockport lead. Brian Hamilton seemingly made it a two-run game when he singled down the left-field line, scoring Saccocio from first. Brockport immediately appealed that the senior missed third base when rounding for home, and the umpire confirmed, subsequently ending the inning and removing a Laker run from the scoreboard.
Oswego narrowed the Golden Eagle margin to just one in an error-filled bottom of the eighth, scoring two runs on two hits and three errors to make it an 8-7 contest. That, however, would be the end of the scoring for either team as both went scoreless in the final frame.
Pat Brown threw 4.2 masterful innings of relief on Friday, scattering seven hits while allowing just one run and striking out two. Brown relieved Miles Kelly, who took the loss with six earned runs in 4.1 innings pitched.
Defensively, Saccocio and Randall had magnificent outfield assists in the game, both throwing out Golden Eagle runners at the plate to prevent further scoring.
In the batter's box, B. Hamilton led the way going 3-for-4 while Kutscher, Giller, Saccocio and Randall all finished with two hits apiece. Liner and Saccocio each had two RBI while Kutscher and B. Hamilton both drove in one run.
Oswego will now play No. 4 Fredonia at 10 a.m. on Saturday as it continues play in the double-elimination tournament.
