The Oswego State Lakers and The College at Brockport Golden Eagles square off this weekend in a highly anticipated series between SUNYAC’s top two teams. Oswego State, the No. 8 team in the nation, got it done in game one of the series in an 8-2 victory over the Golden Eagles.

It was a tight defensive battle for the most of the game, despite both teams striking early in the 2nd inning.

The Golden Eagles struck first in the top of the 2nd inning. Paul Ludden was hit by a pitch with one out to reach first. Joe Bender then singled to make it first and second with 1 out for the Golden Eagles. With two outs in the inning, Dave Battel then drove in Ludden to take the 1-0 lead. With two outs and two on, Wes Randall covered a lot of ground to come up with a magnificent catch in left center to end the inning.

The Lakers responded quickly in the bottom of the 2nd to even up the score as Robert Donnelly drove in Mike Dellicarri on a fielder’s choice. Donnelly advanced to second on the play by a throwing error committed by Greg Ruddy, but he would be left stranded after a Wes Randall line out.

“Early in the game we pitched and played defense, and it held us there,” coach Landers said. “We started off hitting some barrels, we just didn’t find any holes. We had some scoring chances in the first couple innings that we didn’t execute very well.”

In the bottom of the 4th, Jordan Giller led things off with a single up the middle. A failed pick off move advanced Giller to third base. With one out, Dellicarri got the job done by driving in Giller on a fielder’s choice ground ball. Austin Spindler then struck out Zach Kollar to end the inning.

Brian Nolan was able to settle in with his solid defense behind him through 7seven innings. He earned himself the win letting up one earned run on seven hits.

“Just keep going after guys from behind counts, keep my composure, keep going after them, and having trust in my defense,” Nolan said.

With the Lakers leading 2-1 in the bottom of the 6th they were able to supply some insurance. Eric Hamilton led things off with reaching on a throwing error committed by Joe Bender. With one out, Jordan Giller singled to advance Hamilton to 3rd. On the very next pitch, with runners on the corners, John Barnes got the drive of the day with a bases clearing triple to deep right. Mike Dellicarri then drove in Barnes on a sacrifice fly to extend the lead to four.

In the bottom of the 7th the Lakers were able manage to tack on two more runs. After Eric Hamilton was intentionally walked to load the bases, Myles Kutscher provided a single to score both Donnelly and Randall, increasing the Laker lead to 7-1.

Andrew Morano then took over in the 8th on the mound for Brian Nolan. The Golden Eagles were able to get one back on the run column after a triple from Chris Davis, who was driven in by Paul Ludden to make it 7-2. Morano then was able to get Joe Bender to swing and miss for strike three to retire the side.

In the next half inning Zach Kollar singled himself on, and then was able to steal to second and advance to third on a wild throw. Robert Donnelly proceeded to hit a sacrifice fly to push the lead back to six runs.

Morano returned to the rubber with a comfortable 8-2 lead and finished things off in the 9th for the Laker victory. Morano’s final stat line was two innings pitched, one earned run and four strikeouts.

Brockport’s starter on the hill, Austin Spindler, got the loss tossing six plus innings, letting up six runs, three earned on nine hits. Kyle Perez came on in relief in the 7th letting up two earned runs on two hits in two innings pitched.

Myles Kutscher, Jordan Giller, John Barnes, and Mike Dellicarri each drove in two runs.

“We knew this is a big game. We know that we were tied for first in SUNYAC standings with them,” Barnes said , who went 2-4 in the game, “We just wanted to play hard, get a good win, get some momentum going into tomorrow. This one doesn’t mean anything if we don’t show up tomorrow.”

The Lakers now extend their winning streak to 13 games, and improve to 21-3 on the season. They move up one game on Brockport in the SUNYAC standings, but know there’s plenty of work left to be done in tomorrow’s crucial double header.

“Those 13 games, it’s great, but they’re in the past now.  We got to go forward, and these are big games tomorrow,” Landers said.  “We got to defend our own turf being here at home. It’s 13 straight and hopefully it’s 15 tomorrow.”

Tomorrow is undoubtedly the biggest double header for the Lakers so far this season, splitting the series guarantees them a lead in SUNYAC’s going forward, but they hope for more.

The first game of the double header starts here in Oswego tomorrow at noon at Laker Baseball Field.