May 4, 2014

Cortland defeats Brockport to capture SUNYAC title

More news about: Cortland
Cortland won their 32nd overall SUNYAC baseball championship on Sunday.
Cortland athletics photo

CORTLAND, N.Y. – Cortland jumped out to a 7-0 lead in the first inning and Brandon Serio (Bedford Hills/Fox Lane) allowed one run over seven innings as the nationally sixth-ranked Red Dragons defeated Brockport, 12-5, in the championship round of the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) Tournament at Wallace Field.

Cortland (30-8) won its fourth straight league crown and 32nd overall. The Red Dragons earned an automatic berth into the NCAA tournament and will make their 22nd consecutive NCAA appearance – the longest active streak nationally in Div. III. NCAA pairings will be announced May 12. Cortland also reached the 30-win mark for the 10th straight year and 20th time in the last 21 seasons.

Mark Palumbo (Morristown, NJ), who recorded a complete-game victory in Saturday's winner's bracket final over Oswego, was named the tournament MVP. He was joined on the all-tournament team by pitchers Serio and Brandon McClain (Coram/Longwood), outfielder Conrad Ziemendorf (Penfield/Webster Schroeder), third baseman Anthony Iacomini (South Salem/John Jay-Cross River) and shortstop Anthony Simon (Suffern/Don Bosco Prep (NJ)).

Also on the all-tournament team were Justin McCarthy, Tyler Clifford and Anthony Barbetto of Brockport and Oswego's Tim Smith and Brendyn Karinchak.

Serio, now 8-2, allowed five hits an done walk over his seven innings on the mound. He retired the last nine batters he faced after giving up a leadoff single in the fifth.

Brockport (24-14) earned a spot in the championship round Sunday by completing a 3-2 win over Oswego in an elimination game that was halted Saturday in the bottom of the eighth due to rain. It took eight minutes to complete that game. The Golden Eagles, however, got off to an inauspicious start against Cortland when Kyle Tracy led off the game with an apparent double, but was called out on appeal for missing first base.

Cortland started its big first inning with a Donny Castaldo (Mount Kisco/Fox Lane) double and, with one out, a Iacomini RBI single up the middle. Iacomini took second on a wild pitch and scored on P.J. Rinaldi's (Bethel, CT) single to left.

Later in the inning, Vinny Bomasuto (Dunkirk) scored from second as he kept running when Brockport's second baseman dove to knock down the ball on a Max Rosing (Rockville Centre/South Side) RBI single. Simon singled to drive in Rosing, Ziemendorf singled to left and Tim Panetta (Mount Kisco/Fox Lane) capped the inning with a three-run homer to left.

The lead grew to 9-0 in the second on a Bomasuto RBI single and a Rosing sac fly. Mark DeMilio (Valhalla) added a sac fly in the third and Simon beat out a potential double play grounder for an RBI fielder's choice in the fourth to put Cortland ahead 11-1.

Cortland's final run came in the sixth when Rosing capped a 3-for-3, three RBI day with a run-scoring single to left.

Brockport scored in the third on a one-out double by Tracy and an RBI single by Mike Gianni. The Golden Eagles benefitted from two Cortland errors to score four unearned runs off the Red Dragon bullpen in the eighth. Jake Kenney hit a two-run single during that frame.

Cortland had 10 hits through the first two innings and finished with 15. Rosing was one of four Cortland players with multiple hits with his three-hit performance. Iacomini went 2-for-3 with an RBI and two runs, Ziemendorf was 2-for-3 with two runs and Bomasuto finished 2-for-5 with an RBI and a run.

Rob Stankiewicz, who earned the save for Brockport in the 3-2 win over Oswego, started for the Golden Eagles but was knocked out in the first. He gave up five runs, two earned, on five hits. Kenney finished 3-for-4 with two RBI.