NEW PALTZ — The SUNY New Paltz men’s baseball team got two huge victories Sunday over Brockport 8-2 and 3-2 to keep their SUNYAC postseason hopes alive. The Hawks are now 10-18-1 for the year and 4-6 in the conference.
In game one, John Buonamano (Royersford, PA) shut down the Brockport bats, pitching all seven innings giving up just two runs on six hits. At the plate, the Hawks tied the game at one in the bottom of the second when Ernesto Sosa (Santa Domingo, DR) tagged up on Buonamano’s fly out, and got two more in the third on Paul Schropfer’s (Glen Oaks, NY) RBI single and Sosa’s RBI double. In the fourth, already leading 3-1, Left fielder Kevin Smith (Niskayuna, NY) scored on a wild pitch, Randy Walters (Collierville, TN) singled in a run, and Vinnie Perry (Kingston, NY) scored on an errant throw by Brockport. Leading comfortably 6-1, New Paltz tacked on two more in the sixth on Schropfer’s 2 RBI single to win 8-2.
Game two was a pitcher’s dual between New Paltz’s Eric Kantner (New Hampton, NY) and Brockport’s Adam Waite. New Paltz broke Waite in the bottom of the second inning on Tom Bigler’s (Brewster, NY) RBI single that scored Kevin Smith. In the fourth, the Hawks got two more on Vinnie Perry’s (Kingston, NY) 2-RBI single and hung on for the one-run win. Kantner gave up eight hits and two runs in his complete game performance.
The Hawks will next play Union Wednesday at home at 3:30pm and will look forward to next Saturday’s pivotal meeting with Oneonta in their SUNYAC finale.
