CORTLAND, N.Y. – The top-seeded and nationally third-ranked Cortland baseball team opened the four-team, double-elimination SUNYAC Tournament with an 11-3 win over fourth-seeded Fredonia at Wallace Field.
The Red Dragons (32-9) will face third-seeded Oswego in a winner's bracket game Saturday at 1 p.m. Fredonia (18-15) will play second-seeded New Paltz in an elimination game at 10 a.m. Oswego defeated New Paltz, 9-5, in Friday's second game.
Junior Max Rosing (Rockville Centre/South Side) hit a solo homer and doubled and finished 2-for-4 with two runs scored. Senior Zack Graczyk (Carmel) went 2-for-3 with a double, walk and two runs scored. Junior Anthony Iacomini (South Salem/John Jay-Cross River) was 2-for-4 with two RBI and two runs scored, senior John Adornetto (Commack) went 2-for-4 with two doubles, a walk, an RBI and a run and senior Bryan Mistretta (Commack) finished 2-for-4 with an RBI.
Senior Tyler Scott (New Paltz) won after entering the game in relief in the fifth. Starter Brandon McClain (Coram/Longwood) allowed six hits, three walks and three runs in four innings. He struck out five. He left with Cortland up 6-3, but did not pitch the five innings necessary to earn the win. Scott gave up four hits and a walk in three and a third scoreless innings for his second win of the spring.
Erik Krohl was 2-for-3 and Jake Nowak went 1-for-3 with a walk and RBI for Fredonia. Zachary Hugg gave up five runs, four earned, in two and a third innings and suffered the loss.
Fredonia led 1-0 in the first on a Dillon Lowe RBI single. The Blue Devils, however, stranded two runners in the first as well as runners on second and third in the second.
Cortland tied the game on a double play grounder in the first and took the lead on Rosing's leadoff homer in the second. The Red Dragons also scored in the second on an Adornetto RBI double and added three in the third on a P.J. Rinaldi (Bethel, CT) sacrifice fly, a Iacomini RBI single and an error.
Fredonia rallied for two in the fourth on Kenny Johnston's RBI double and Nowak's sacrifice fly. McClain struck out a batter with runners on second and third to end the inning.
Cortland put the game away with five runs in the seventh. Iacomini singled in a run and Brian Barry (Nesconset/Smithtown East) hit a two-run triple. An error on a grounder allowed a run to score, and Mistretta followed with an RBI single to left center.