PORT CHARLOTTE, FLA. – Alex Weingarten (East Rockaway/Lynbrook) allowed two runs over five innings as Cortland defeated New Paltz, 9-2, to compete a three-game SUNYAC sweep of the Hawks at the North Charlotte Regional Park.
Cortland, ranked third nationally by D3baseball.com and second by the American Baseball Coaches Association, improved to 14-1 overall and 3-0 in the conference.
Cortland finished the game with 16 hits, but also benefitted from eight New Paltz errors that led to eight of the Red Dragons' nine runs being unearned.
Weingarten, now 3-0 on the season, gave up six hits, struck out four and walked none. Four Red Dragons each threw a scoreless inning of relief. Ryan McAlary (Shoreham/Shoreham-Wading River) struck out one in a perfect sixth, Evan Honce (East Patchogue/Bellport) gave up a single and fanned one in the seventh, Vinny Bomasuto (Dunkirk) allowed one hit in the eighth, and Travis Laitar (Fergus, ON/Centre Wellington) threw a 1-2-3 ninth with one strikeout. Cortland pitchers did not walk any batters.
Nick Hart (Fredonia) reached base safely in all five of his plate appearances with three hits, a walk and a hit-by-pitch. He doubled and drove in a run. Bomasuto, who started the game as the designated hitter, went 3-for-5 with a triple, RBI and two runs, and Donny Castaldo (Mount Kisco/Fox Lane) was 3-for-5 with two runs.
Also for Cortland, Connor Griffin (Cortland) drove in three runs and Austin Clock (Niskayuna) ended 2-for-4. Matthew Mihalski (Buffalo/St. Francis) went 1-for-2 with a hit-by-pitch, Patrick Schetter (Beacon) finished 1-for-1 with a walk and Keith Andrews (Commack) was 1-for-2 with an RBI.
Jamie Fox started for New Paltz and gave up six hits and five unearned runs in two and two thirds innings. He walked one batter. Christian Huertas tossed the next five and a third innings and allowed nine hits and four runs, one earned, with three strikeouts and a walk. Jordan Deitch threw a scoreless ninth with a hit and a walk.
With two outs in the third and Castaldo on second, Fox got a ground ball to second that should have ended the inning and kept the game scoreless. Instead, a fielding error on the play allowed Castaldo to score, and a throwing error to home moved the batter, Conrad Ziemendorf (Penfield/Webster Schroeder), to second.
That misplay opened the door to a five-run inning for the Red Dragons. Bomasuto hit an RBI single, then on a hit-and-run Anthony Simon (Suffern/Don Bosco Prep (NJ)) singled, with an error by the right fielder allowing Bomasuto to score. Clock singled, Hart was hit to load the bases, and Griffin lined a two-run single to center to give Cortland a 5-0 lead.
Cortland scored once in the fourth on a similar play to the one on which Bomasuto scored in the third. Castaldo led off with a single, and with one out and a hit-and-run on, Bomasuto singled through the right side. Castaldo went to third, then scored on a misplay in right field.
New Paltz (3-10, 0-3 SUNYAC) got to Weingarten for two runs in the bottom of the fourth. The Hawks started the inning with three consecutive doubles, starting with a Jake Williams shot to right center and an RBI double by Shaun Hansen down the left field line. Mike Sparacino then doubled on a liner to center, although Hansen had to wait to see if the ball was going to be caught so he ended up holding at third. Two batters later, Andrew DiNardo hit a sac fly to center and the Hawks were within 5-2.
Cortland scored another unearned run in the sixth when Hart walked, stole second, went to third on a throwing error during the steal and scored on Griffin's groundout to short. The Red Dragons' final two runs came in the ninth on a Bomasuto leadoff triple, an Andrews RBI single and, later in the inning, a Hart RBI double after his at-bat was prolonged due to a dropped foul pop-up.
Cortland is scheduled to return to action on Tuesday, March 24, at 3:30 p.m. with a non-league game at Ithaca College.