FREDONIA, N.Y. – Mike Harrington (Glens Falls) pitched six and two thirds scoreless relief innings with nine strikeouts and no walks to earn the victory and Steven Figueroa (Bronx/St. Raymond's) finished 2-for-3 with two walks and two RBI as nationally second-ranked Cortland opened SUNYAC play with a 5-2 win at Fredonia.
The game was moved up to Thursday due to projected weather conditions on Saturday, but was still played in a temperature in the mid-30s. The teams are scheduled to play a doubleheader Friday at 12:30 p.m. on a turf field at Houghton College.
Cortland (13-3, 1-0 SUNYAC) scored on a wild pitch in the first and on a Figueroa two-run single in the second to take a 3-0 lead. Fredonia (8-8, 0-4 SUNYAC) scored twice in the third on back-to-back RBI singles by Liam Kelly and Ciro Frontale to knock out Cortland starter Jake Casey (Homer). Harrington entered and registered a flyout and strikeout with runners on first and third to preserve the lead, and he blanked the Blue Devils the rest of the way on only four hits to improve to 2-0 on the season.
Cortland added insurance runs in the eighth on a Paul Dondero (East Islip) RBI double and in the ninth on a Nate Budge (Central Square/Paul V. Moore) RBI single. Fredonia put two runners on with one out in the bottom of the ninth on singles by Frontale and Kevin Yirinec, but Harrington got the next batter to fly out and fanned the final hitter to end the contest.
Casey allowed three hits and two runs, one earned, over the first two and a third innings for the Red Dragons. Jake Harford started for Fredonia and gave up only five hits and three runs, one earned, in seven frames. He struck out six and walked three.
In addition to Figueroa's two-hit, two-walk effort, Jon Warner (Tully) went 2-for-4 with a walk and two runs scored, Budge was 2-for-4 with a walk and RBI, and Dondero went 2-for-4 with an RBI. Cortland stranded 10 runners, including two each in four different innings. Frontale finished 3-for-4 with an RBI and Joshua Crocetti ended 2-for-3 for the hosts.