AUBURNDALE, Fla. - The No. 11 Oswego State baseball team kicked off their week in Florida with a doubleheader split against St. Joseph's-LI on Saturday.  The Lakers dropped the morning matchup, 2-1, before cruising to a 12-6 victory in the afternoon game.  Oswego moves their record to 3-2 on the young season while the Golden Eagles are 3-6.

Game 1
The Lakers struck first when Brandon Nicholson walked to lead off the game, stole second, and eventually came around to score on a wild pitch.  The score remained 1-0 until the third inning when the Golden Eagles would load the bases on a pair of fielding errors and a walk.  St. Joseph's would hit a sacrifice fly to right, enabling the runner to advance from second to third on the play.  A single in the next at-bat would give them a 2-1 lead.

Oswego looked primed to counter in the top of the fourth when John Barnes and Myles Kutscher walked and executed a double steal to put runners on second and third with only one out.  The Golden Eagles would record a strikeout and flyout to end the threat.

The offenses were cold until the top of the seventh when the Lakers led off with a walk by Lukas Olsson.  After a pair of flyouts, Zach Whelan and Nicholson walked to load the bases   A groundout to second would thwart the Oswego comeback.

Senior Reston Pettit was strong for the Lakers, going six innings while giving up no earned runs, three hits and striking out seven.  
 
Game 2
Oswego found themselves in a 3-0 hole early in the second game of the doubleheader before getting the offense going.  In the bottom of the third, senior Kevin Hylas led off with a walk to start the Laker rally.  Nicholson would double to put runners on second and third with no outs and Mike Dellicarri would follow with a triple to cut the lead to 3-2.  John Barnes would hit a sacrifice fly to tie the score.

In the very next inning, the Lakers would get a pair of singles from Whelan and catcher Collin Thompson to put two aboard.  They would advance on a wild pitch before being driven in on a double from Hylas.  Hylas would move over to third on a flyout and come home on a sacrifice fly from Dellicarri.  Barnes would keep the pressure on with a walk and move to third on a Mike DeBlasio double.  Pinch hitter Rocco Leone would beat out an infield single extend Oswego's lead out to 7-3.

After a pair of Golden Eagle runs in the top of the sixth, Oswego would get five hits in the bottom half of the inning before making an out. Remarkably, four of the five hits in the inning were triples from Hylas, Nicholson, Barnes and DeBlasio and would lead to a five-run spurt by the Lakers to push the lead out to 12-5.

Starter Brian Nolan earned the win in giving up one earned run while striking out 10 batters.  Quinn MacDonald pitched the final fours outs to secure the Laker victory.

The team is back in action tomorrow morning at 10:30 a.m. at Polk State College when they take on Wartburg College.