NEWPORT NEWS, VA. – The Cortland baseball team, ranked first nationally in Division III, split two contests Saturday in games played at Christopher Newport University. The Red Dragons defeated Susquehanna University of Pennsylvania, 11-8, before losing to the host Captains, 5-3. The second game was called in the bottom of the seventh due to rain, lightning and hail.
Cortland (3-1) will travel to 10th-ranked Randolph-Macon in Ashland, Va., for a 1 p.m. game Sunday.
Cortland 11, Susquehanna 8
Jack Massa (Shoreham/Shoreham-Wading River) homered and drove in four runs and Matt Michalski (Buffalo/St. Francis) drove in three runs as the Red Dragons defeated the River Hawks in a rematch of last year's NCAA New York Regional final. The game was very reminiscent of that regional final, which Cortland won, 10-9, in a back-and-forth affair.
Cortland took a 4-1 lead with three unearned runs in the top of the third. Michalski's grounder to second brought home a run, with an error on the play allowing another run to score, and Massa drove in the third run with a groundout to second. Susquehanna (0-2) responded with two runs in the third on a Zach Leone two-run homer and took a 5-4 lead in the fifth on a Taylor Luckenbill RBI groundout and a Cole Luzins RBI single. Luzins finished the game 4-for-5, while Leone and Dylan Jenkins were each 2-for-4 with two RBI.
The Red Dragons regained the lead with four runs in the sixth on a Michalski two-run single and a Massa two-run homer. The River Hawks closed to within 8-7 on Jenkins' two-run double in the bottom of the sixth. The teams each plated a run in the seventh - Cortland on a Patrick Schetter (Beacon) RBI single and Susquehanna on an Anthony Dombrowski RBI single.
Cortland added two key insurance runs in the top of the ninth on RBI singles by Steven Figueroa (Bronx/St. Raymond's) and Massa.
Cortland's defense committed just one error, and the Red Dragons threw out three Susquehanna runners at the plate trying to score on hits to the outfield, including the potential tying run in both the bottom of the sixth and seventh innings.
Nate Budge (Central Square/Paul V. Moore) finished 3-for-5 as part of Cortland's 12-hit attack. Schetter went 2-for-5 with two RBI and Massa was 2-for-6. Figueroa reached base five times, four by walk (two intentional), while Michalski and Paul Dondero (East Islip) each walked three times. Dondero also had a hit and was hit by a pitch and scored five runs.
Mike Harrington (Glens Falls) earned the win in relief as he was the pitcher of record when Cortland took the lead for good in the top of the sixth. Alex Weingarten (East Rockaway/Lynbrook) earned the save after pitching the final three and a third innings. He allowed three hits and one run with one walk and four strikeouts. He entered with two outs in the sixth and got the final out. He allowed a run in the seventh, but retired six of the seven batters he faced over the final two scoreless frames in a game that took three hours and 50 minutes to complete.
Christopher Newport 5, Cortland 3 (7 inn., rain)
The host Captains (6-5) rallied from a 3-0 deficit with two runs in both the fourth and fifth innings and another run in the sixth. The game was stopped in the bottom of the seventh with one runner on and no outs, and was eventually called as lightning, heavy rain and hail hit the area as darkness settled in. All of the stats from the seventh inning counted as the action in that inning did not affect the final outcome.
Joe Tardif (Cutchogue/Mattituck) went 1-for-3 with a walk and three RBI and Justin Teague (North Syracuse/Cicero-North Syracuse) was 2-for-2 with a hit-by-pitch to lead the Red Dragons. A.J. Nicely finished 2-for-3 with two RBI for CNU, with three other players - Keith Roberts, Brandon Grinch and Craig Johnson - also going 2-for-3. Johnson scored twice and Nicholas Baham drove in two runs.
Jeff Cooke (Rome/Rome Free Academy) started for Cortland and took the loss after allowing seven hits and one walk with three strikeouts in five innings. Only two of the four runs he gave up were earned. Tyler Jumper earned the win in relief with two innings of one-hit scoreless ball. He walked two and struck out one.
Tardif hit a two-run single in the second to give Cortland a 2-0 lead, and he drew a bases-loaded walk in the third to extend the lead to 3-0. The Red Dragons, however, left 13 runners on base, including the bases loaded in both the second and third innings.
Nicely hit a two-run double in the fourth to draw CNU within 3-2, and Baham's two-run double in the fifth put the Captains ahead 4-3. Both of those hits came with two outs. A Cortland error on a potential inning-ending double play ball allowed the host's final run to score in the sixth.