CORTLAND, N.Y. – Junior Mike Hughes (Albany) and two relievers combined on a six-hit shutout as Cortland defeated St. Joseph's College of Long Island, 14-0, in a non-league contest. Cortland, ranked sixth nationally by the ABCA and 17th by D3baseball.com, is now 18-7-1. The Golden Eagles slip to 14-11. The two teams will play again in Cortland Saturday at 1 p.m.
Hughes improved to 4-2 with the victory. He allowed four hits and one walk and struck out five in six innings. Junior Zachary Badanes (Syosset) gave up one hit and one walk and fanned two batters in two innings. Sophomore Steve Komanecky (Auburn) pitched the ninth and allowed one hit with one strikeout.
Five players recorded multiple hits as part of Cortland's 17-hit performance. Junior Andrew Pezzuto (Hastings), sophomore Tim Panetta (Mount Kisco/Fox Lane) and junior Bryan Mistretta (Commack) were each 2-for-3 with two RBI. Junior Zack Graczyk (Carmel) went 2-for-2 with an RBI and sophomore Max Rosing (Rockville Centre/South Side) was 2-for-3 with an RBI. Pezzuto, Panetta, Rosing, junior Michael LaTempa (LaGrangeville/Arlington) and sophomore Adam Smith (Vestal) each scored two runs.
Mike Alisio finished 1-for-2 and Dylan Montana and Sean McCauley were each 1-for-1 for the Golden Eagles. Jason Dierkes started and allowed 11 hits and nine runs, five earned, in four innings.
Cortland sprinted to a 5-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning. LaTempa reached on an error and scored on a Matt June (Colonie) RBI double. Rosing singled in June, then one out later stole second. After Panetta reached on an infield single, Brian Barry (Smithtown/Smithtown East) bunted the runners to second and third and Pezzuto lined a two-run single to right. Pezzuto scored the final run of the inning two batters later on a Mistretta single to center.
Graczyk extended the lead to 6-0 with an RBI single in the third. The Red Dragons then scored three times in the fourth on a Panetta two-run double and Barry RBI single, followed by three more runs in the fifth on back-to-back RBI doubles by Mistretta and LaTempa and a Rob Andrews (Commack) sacrifice fly. Cortland closed the scoring with two runs in the sixth on an RBI fielder's choice by Mathew Wild (Auburn) and a wild pitch.
St. Joseph's managed to advance only three runners to second base. Alex Ras walked and Dennis Nover singled with two outs in the third, but a fielder's choice ended the inning. Rich Pecoraro and Brian Hannigan hit back-to-back singles with two outs in the sixth but were stranded after a groundout. In the seventh, Kenny Willms led off with a walk and went to second on a one-out McCauley single. Badanes, however, struck out the next two hitters to end the threat.