Brockport, N.Y- The Brockport baseball team returns from Florida for non-conference action against the University of Rochester Wednesday, March 22^nd at 3:30 pm before opening SUNYAC play with a 3-game set at New Paltz. Brockport will take on New Paltz Friday, March 24^th at 3 pm, and again in doubleheader action beginning at 12 pm on Saturday.
 
Florida Highlights: The Golden Eagles went 5-3 in the RussMatt Central Florida Invitational, ending play with 3 straight victories including a 9-4 win over New York University, an 17-1 win over Springfield College, and a 5-1 win over Lawrence University.
 
In the win over NYU, Junior Zach Eldred shined with a 6 RBI performance, highlighted by his grand slam in the 5^th inning to put Brockport up 5-0.  
 
In the 17-1 trouncing of Springfield, 1B Patrick Bigham, RF Zach Eldred, and CF Nicholas Pastore all recorded 3 hits. P Matt McGowan earned the win with 6 strong innings on the bump, recording 8 strikeouts and allowing just one run on 4 hits.
 
In the final game against Lawrence University, 1B Patrick Bigham opened the scoring with his solo homer in the 2^nd, the first of his three hits in the contest. Pitcher Andrew Huffman turned in one of his best outings as a Golden Eagle, earning the win after punching out 12 and allowing no earned runs in 5 innings of work. Graduate Student Matthew Colucci also produced a near-perfect outing, allowing just one hit and striking out 5 in 4 innings of action.
 
Brockport improved to 7-6 on the year following the RussMatt Central Florida Invitational.
 
SUNYAC Honors: On Monday, March 20^th the SUNYAC announced that Andrew Huffman was named the SUNYAC Pitcher of the Week. Huffman made an imminent impact returning from injury, holding opposing hitters to just a .100 batting average and posting a 20.25 K/9 on the week.  
 
Starting Strong: OF Nicholas Pastore and OF/P Zach Eldred have fueled the Golden Eagle offense through the first 13 games. The duo leads Brockport in nearly every offensive statistic, with Pastore leading the Green and Gold in runs (14), hits (21), triples (3), and total bases (29).  Eldred leads Brockport in OPS (1.081), slugging (.600), RBIs (12), and on-base percentage (.481).

P Matt McGowan is off to a dominant start in 2023, posting a 2-1 record with a 2.82 ERA across his first four starts while striking out 24 batters in 22.1 innings of work.      
 
Scouting Rochester: Rochester has gotten off to a strong 11-7 start to the season, most recently winning two of a three-game set with La Verne University in California. Rochester's game with the Golden Eagles will serve as its home opener. Brockport has gotten the better of the Yellowjackets, winning 4 of the last 5 including a 14-1 beatdown in Brockport last season.
 
Scouting New Paltz: The Hawks have gotten off to a 3-6 start to the 2023 season, most recently splitting a two-game set with Kean University in New Jersey. New Paltz has been led by breakout freshman Chris Sais, who is posting an impressive .381/.458/.571 slash line with 5 RBIs and a homer in 7 appearances. Brockport won all 3 meetings last year against the Hawks by a combined 26-7 run margin. 

Up Next: Brockport will hit the road to take on Cazenovia College in SUNYAC play on Tuesday, March 28^th at 5 pm.