CORTLAND, N.Y. – Conrad Ziemendorf (Penfield/Webster Schroeder) went 3-for-4 with a homer and four RBI and Brandon McClain (Coram/Longwood) allowed one hit over eight and a third innings as nationally sixth-ranked and top-seeded Cortland opened the SUNYAC tournament with a 9-1 win over fourth-seeded Oneonta.
Cortland (28-8) will face third-seeded Oswego (20-10) in the winner's bracket game Saturday at 1 p.m., while Oneonta (13-24) will play second-seeded Brockport (22-13) at 10 a.m. in an elimination game. The two teams with one loss following those two games will play an elimination game at 4 p.m. Oswego defeated Brockport, 4-1, in Friday's second game.
McClain, now 9-1 on the season, took a no-hitter into the sixth inning before allowing a David Wright single. He walked four and struck out four before giving way to Travis Laitar (Fergus, ON/Centre Wellington), who retired the final two batters of the game. McClain, who entered the contest with a 1.55 ERA, allowed one run.
Steve Ascher started for Oneonta and gave up eight hits, five walks and five runs with one strikeout in seven innings. He entered the game with a 1.30 ERA.
Cortland broke a scoreless tie in the fourth. Anthony Iacomini (South Salem/John Jay-Cross River) hustled out a triple after hitting a ball just past a diving center fielder. He scored on P.J. Rinaldi's (Bethel, CT) groundout to second.
In the fifth, Mark DeMilio (Valhalla) drew a leadoff walk and Anthony Simon (Suffern/Don Bosco Prep (NJ)) singled through the left side. Ziemendorf then hit an opposite-field fly ball that carried over the fence in left for a three-run homer and Cortland led 4-0.
Oneonta got on the board in the sixth when Casy Kies walked, Wright hit a single up the middle, Matt Mastroianni bunted the runners to second and third and Christopher Orlando registered a sacrifice fly to right.
Vinny Bomasuto's (Dunkirk) sac fly in the sixth scored Ziemendorf, who led off with a single, stole second and moved to third on a Donny Castaldo (Mount Kisco/Fox Lane) sac bunt. Cortland broke the game open with four runs in the eighth on a DeMilio RBI single, a wild pitch that scored a run, a Ziemendorf RBI fielder's choice grounder and a Iacomini RBI single.
Ziemendorf scored three runs in addition to driving in four. Iacomini went 2-for-3 with two walks and an RBI and Bryan Marotta (Clifton Park/Shenendehowa) was 2-for-4. Demilio and Max Rosing (Rockville Centre/South Side) each finished 1-for-2 with two walks.