Colts vs Hawks of Rockland County

The SUNY Orange Colts played against their first conference opponent of the season as they faced off against the Hawks of Rockland County on Saturday and Sunday of this past weekend. Two games were played of saturday and it was one the Colts wanted to forget about as the first game started out the opposite the Colts had hoped as they found themselves trailing by 5 runs in after the first two innings and until the 8th inning of the game the Colts were held scoreless and went on a phenomenal 5 run inning to cut the lead to just a two run deficit with a score of 7-5. But it unfortunately was not enough to slow down the Hawks as they came out and scored two more runs to close out the game and win Game #1 with a score of 9-5.

Game #2 was not like the first as the Colts came out scoring in the first inning of the game thanks to Derek Sherman who drove in teammate Richard Bosser to give the Colts a 1-0 lead. The Colts were able to maintain that lead until the 3rd inning where they allowed 3 runs to give Rockland a two run lead with the Colts up to the plate and after going scoreless the Colts trail by two runs heading into the 4th inning of the game. Inning #4 was certainly one the Colts are not going to bring up this season as they allowed 13 runs as they had no answer for the Hawks defensively and were unable to get out of the massive hole they dug themselves into. 

The Colts traveled to Rockland County on day #2 to play their third and fourth games of the conference series where they hope to finish off with two wins if they hope to achieve an even .500 conference record. To start out the third game of the series the Colts were able to get an early lead and maintain it for the entirety of the game. After a huge 7th inning where the Colts scored 6 runs which helped increase their lead to 5 runs with a score of 12-7 the Colts picked up their first conference win of the series. LF #23 Andrew Reda had a fantastic game finishing with 3 RBI's and a recorded Triple and scored two times himself.

The fourth and final game of the series the Colts looked to even the score at two wins each but unfortunately were unsuccessful and lost 5-0 as the Colts had their troubles inside of the batter's box in the final game and were unable to capitalize on the chances that were given. After this loss the Colts moved to a 5-11 record and are 1-3 in conference play. 

The Colts will look to turn things around this week as they take on another conference opponent on Thursday April 11th against the Generals of Sullivan County Community College the first two games will take play at Sullivan County and then the Colts are back home Saturday April 13th for a double header starting at 12:00 PM EST. 

Aside from the off weekend in the scoring column there were three athletes who shined and accomplished what they needed to do. #27 Brian Saldana the Pitcher/Infielder had a great weekend. With 13 at bats Brian finished with the highest batting average on the team with a .385 BA and had a .438 On Base Percentage finishing with 5 hits and hid 3 RBI's while alo crossing home plate twice. Saldana had a great game on the mound this weekend, in four games he pitched a total of 9.0 innings while only giving up 8 hits and 6 runs and striking out five batters for an ERA (Earned Run Average) of 1.00

C/3B #2 Richard Bosser had the second highest batting average on the team for the weekend. Finishing with a .333 BA and a .375 OBS Bosser had 5 hits and recorded two RBI's while scoring 3 times. Bosser also had a great day in the field as he converted every ball hit to him into an out. Putting away 9 base runners and recorded 0 errors.

Lastly 2B #25 Josh Martin had a great weekend inside the batter's box. Martin got up to bat 13 different times and in those at bats he came in contact with 4 pitches recorded for hits one of which was extended for a double. Martin recorded just 1 RBI and was able to earn a ball four call three different times for a free base for a batting average of .308 and an OBP of .471. Martin was one of four Colts to record a double in this four game series and was one of three Colts to steal a base.