CORTLAND, N.Y. – Cortland's offense exploded for a combined 26 runs and 29 hits in a home SUNYAC doubleheader sweep versus Oswego. The Red Dragons, ranked eighth nationally by the ABCA and 13th by D3baseball.com, won the seven-inning opener, 13-2, and the nine-inning second game, 13-5. The Red Dragons are now 24-7-1 overall and 10-2 in the SUNYAC. Oswego dropped to 14-17 and 5-7.
GAME 1: Cortland 13, Oswego 2
Cortland scored in each of its six at-bats in the victory and finished with 16 hits. Sophomore Tim Panetta (Mount Kisco/Fox Lane) went 3-for-4 with a double and two RBI. Junior Brian Barry (Smithtown/Smithtown East) was 2-for-4 with a double and three RBI and sophomore Max Rosing (Rockville Centre/South Side) went 2-for-4 with three RBI.
Junior Michael LaTempa (LaGrangeville/Arlington) posted a 2-for-3 performance with a triple, walk, three runs scored and an RBI. Junior Andrew Pezzuto (Hastings) was 2-for-3 with two RBI and senior Matt June (Colonie) finished 2-for-3 with a walk and two runs scored.
Junior Mike Hughes (Albany) improved to 5-2 with the victory. He pitched four and two-thirds innings of shutout ball with four strikeouts and no walks.
Ed Charles was 2-for-2 with an RBI and Matt Miller went 2-for-3 to lead Oswego. Brady Farkas started and took the loss after allowing eight runs, five earned, in three and two-thirds innings.
Rosing doubled in two runs in the first and Pezzuto hit an RBI single in the second to give Cortland a 3-0 lead. Cortland added four in the third on a Barry RBI double, a Panetta two-run single and a Pezzutto sacrifice fly.
LaTempa tripled and scored on a wild pitch in the fourth to stretch the lead to 8-0. Oswego got on the board in the fifth on a Charles RBI single, but Cortland plated four runs in the bottom of the inning. LaTempa walked with the bases loaded, Rosing hit an RBI groundout and Barry singled down the left field line to drive in two runs.
In the sixth, Oswego's Scott Buniak singled in a run, while Cortland responded with a Rob Andrews (Commack) sacrifice fly.
GAME 2: Cortland 13, Oswego 5
Cortland broke a 5-5 tie with six runs in the bottom of the seventh and added two runs in the eighth to pull away for the win. Senior Brendan Hourihan (Yorktown Heights/Lakeland) earned the win with three innings of two-hit relief. He entered in the fifth inning and allowed one run and one walk.
Cortland's go-ahead rally started with a Pezzuto one-out triple. He scored on a John Adornetto (Commack) single to right to put the Red Dragons up 6-5. LaTempa and Rosing each singled to load the bases and P.J. Rinaldi's (Bethel, CT) sacrifice fly plated a run. Junior Kyle Barkley (Penn Yan) followed with a two-run double to left center, and he scored on an error after a Barry single. Andrews closed the scoring with a pinch-hit two-run single in the eighth.
Oswego committed three of its six errors in the third inning to lead to five Cortland unearned runs and an early 5-0 Red Dragon lead. After Barry led off with a single, the next three batters reached on throwing errors – two on sacrifice bunt plays – and three runs scored. Two batters later, LaTempa hit a two-run homer to center.
The Lakers, coached by former Cortland All-America pitcher Scott Landers, fought back to tie the game with two runs in the fourth and fifth innings and a run in the seventh. An Alex Jurczynski sacrifice fly and a wild pitch accounted for the runs in the fourth and Mike Stark and David Mazzullo each drove in runs with groundouts in the fifth after Mike Tarnowski had singled and Buniak doubled to start the inning. Miller tied the game with a two-out solo homer down the left field line in the seventh.
Barry finished 3-for-4 with two runs and Adornetto was 3-for-5 with a double and RBI as part of Cortland's 13-hit attack. LaTempa was 2-for-4 with two RBI and two runs.
Adam Bishop started for Oswego. He gave up 10 hits and a walk and struck out four in six and two-thirds innings. Only four of the 11 runs he allowed were earned. Miller and Jurczynski each were 2-for-3 with an RBI.
Cortland will travel to Oneonta for a three-game SUNYAC set Friday and Saturday. The teams will play once Friday at 3 p.m. and twice Saturday, starting at noon.