CORTLAND, N.Y. – Cortland scored all 11 of its runs in the bottom of the fourth inning as the Red Dragons defeated Oneonta, 11-1, in the first of a three-game SUNYAC series.
Cortland improved to 4-0 in league play and 12-8-1 overall and Oneonta is now 9-10 overall and 2-5 in the SUNYAC. The teams will play a doubleheader in Cortland Friday at noon.
Zack Durant (Verona/V-V-S) pitched six innings of three-hit ball for his fourth win of the spring. He struck out six and walked two. Durant did not allow a hit until one out into the top of the fifth inning. Steven Salisbury (Cranston, RI/Moses Brown) pitched two scoreless innings with one hit allowed, no walks and two strikeouts, and Liam Krasney (Greenville) gave up one hit and fanned two in a scoreless ninth frame.
Brian Corporan (Bronx/H.S. for Environmental Studies) finished 3-for-4 with a double and two runs scored and Scott Giordano (Croton-on-Hudson/Croton-Harmon) was 2-for-4 with a double. Wyatt Myers (Chittenango) and Mat Bruno (Rye) each drove in two runs and scored twice and Colin BeVard (Syracuse/West Genesee) was 1-for-3 with a walk and two RBI.
Oneonta starter Ryan Fay shut out Cortland for three innings but allowed four straight hits to start the fourth. Sean McGlynn was 2-for-4 with a double and Mike Graves went 1-for-2 with a walk and RBI to lead Oneonta's offense.
Cortland sent 16 batters to the plate in its 11-run fourth inning. Things started with a Corporan double, a Dan Schweitzer (Poughquag/Arlington) bunt single, a Myers RBI single and a Bruno two-run single. Marcos Perivolaris (Mattituck) followed with an RBI single to make it 4-0. An error allowed a run and BeVard singled in two runs to extend the lead to 7-0.
After a Corporan single and a Schweitzer walk, Myers hit into a fielder's choice to drive in a run. The ninth run scored on an error, the 10th on a wild pitch on ball four of a Perivolaris walk, and the 11th on a James Varian (Hopewell Junction/Trinity-Pawling) RBI single.
Oneonta scored its run in the top of the fifth when McGlynn doubled with one out, breaking up Durant's no-hitter, and Graves hit an RBI single to right center. The guests had runners on second and third with two outs in the sixth but Durant got a flyout to end the threat.