March 14, 2014

#3 Southern Maine Holds Off Rally by #8 Cortland in 10-9 Victory

More news about: Cortland

AUBURNDALE, FLA. – Cortland's rallies from 7-1 and 10-5 deficits fell just short as the Red Dragons lost to Southern Maine, 10-9, in a battle of two national top-10 teams. Cortland (9-3) is ranked eighth and Southern Maine (3-0) is ranked third in the latest D3baseball.com poll.

Each team finished with 13 hits. Jake Glauser was 2-for-3 with a triple, double, walk and three runs scored and Paul McDonough finished 3-for-5 with an RBI for the Huskies, who were last year's NCAA Div. III runner-up. John Carey and Forrest Chadwick each went 2-for-4 with a double, walk and three RBI and Matt Verrier hit a solo homer.

Bryan Marotta finished 4-for-5 with an RBI and Michael DeCarr went 2-for-5 with a homer, double, four RBI and two runs scored to lead the Red Dragons. In addition, Chris Jackson was 2-for-4 and Anthony Iacomini finished 2-for-5.

The game started off as a duel between starting pitchers Steven Kimmelman for Cortland and Shyler Scates for Southern Maine. Kimmelman, normally a reliever for the Red Dragons, allowed no hits and two walks and one unearned run over his first four innings, while Scates gave up one run on two hits and a walk in the first four frames.

Kimmelman, however, was knocked out in the fifth after allowing a one-out triple to Glauser, and then four consecutive baserunners with two outs on a Sam Dexter RBI single, a Carey walk, a Chadwick two-run double and a Chris Bernard RBI double. Reliever Ryan Prochna gave up a walk and a McDonough RBI single and the Huskies led 6-1.

Southern Maine added a run in the sixth when Glauser led off with a double and scored on a two-out Carey RBI single. Cortland got back in the game with four runs in the bottom of the sixth. Singles by Jackson and Iacomini knocked out Scates. After a strikeout and a fielder's choice, pinch hitter Pat Farina walked with two outs and DeCarr emptied the bases with a three-run double down the left field line. Marotta followed with an RBI single and Cortland trailed 7-5.

The Huskies began to pull away again over the next couple of innings. Verrier homered in the seventh, and in the eighth Carey hit an RBI double and Chadwick singled in a run to extend the lead to 10-5.

In the Cortland eighth, DeCarr hit a solo homer with one out and Marotta reached on an infield single. Mathew Wild singled and Vinny Bomasuto doubled down the right field line to drive in Marotta and move Wild to third. Jackson plated Wild with a sacrifice fly to center and Iacomini reached on an error to score Bomasuto and cut Southern Maine's lead to 10-9.

Still down a run in the bottom of the ninth, Cortland started the inning with a Nick Hart walk and a Farina sacrifice that moved Hart to second. Chadwick, who moved from center field to start the ninth on the mound for the Huskies, escaped the jam with a strikeout and a pop-up and earned his first save of the season. Scates earned the win and is 2-0 on the season.