Baseball Team Falls Late

FORT PIERCE, FLA. — The SUNY New Paltz baseball team dropped its record to 1-4 this season with another tough loss, 11-8, to Geneva College on Saturday night in Fort Pierce, Fla.

The Hawks, which have led in all five of their contests this spring, had a 3-0 lead after one inning and were ahead 5-4 after three innings in this game, but allowed seven Golden Tornado runs over the last four innings to suffer their fourth late-inning defeat.

Nova Scotia native Brian Clarke (2-for-3, 2B, 2 runs scored), Staatsburg’s Mark Milroy (1-for-2, 2 runs) and New Paltz product Erik Nilsen (2-for-2, RBI) continued their hot hitting, contributing half of New Paltz’s 10 hits. Milroy currently leads the team in hitting with an .800 average, while Nilsen (.571) and Clarke (.500) are third and fourth, respectively.

But the Hawk pitching staff struggled to get batters out, allowing 10 hits and walking 12.

“This was the best team we’ve faced down here,” New Paltz Head Coach Mike Juhl said. “We swung the bat well (and) we played good defense, but could not throw strikes. We did see some bright spots in freshmen (Kingston High graduate Chris) Schuon and (Monroe-Woodbury graduate Joe) Winkler.”

New Paltz plays two games on Sunday. The Hawks face Buena Vista (Iowa) University at 9 a.m., then play St. Scholastica (Minn.) at noon.