CORTLAND, N.Y. – Cortland scored three times in the bottom of the eighth inning - after Oswego rallied from an early 9-0 deficit to tie the game – and the Red Dragons defeated the Lakers, 13-10, in the first game of a SUNYAC doubleheader. Cortland also won the second game, 4-2, to improve to 14-0 in league play and 25-9-1 overall.
Cortland and Oswego (22-10, 11-3 SUNYAC) will play the final game of the series Friday at 11 a.m. – the game time has been moved up due to poor weather expected later in the day.
Cortland 13, Oswego 10
Cortland grabbed a 9-0 lead with three runs in the first on a James Varian (Hopewell Junction/Trinity-Pawling) three-run homer and six in the second on a combination of just two hits, three walks, two hit batters, two balks and an error.
Oswego started its comeback with two in the fourth on a Lukas Olsson RBI single and a Casey Gruarin sac fly. The Lakers drew within a run with a six-run fifth inning that included a Mike Dellicarri grand slam and a Justin Troelstra two-run single.
Antonio Pragana's (Hopewell Junction/John Jay) singled home a run in the sixth to make it 10-8, but Oswego plated a run in the seventh on a Gruarin sac fly and tied the game in the eighth on a Gruarin RBI fielder's choice. A pop-up with runners on first and third ended the inning.
Cortland's winning rally in the bottom of the eighth began with a Wyatt Myers (Chittenango) walk and a Varian sac bunt. Marcos Perivolaris (Mattituck) singled to move pinch runner Matt Krafft (Cornwall) to third, but a fielder's choice by Pragana resulted in Kraftt being thrown out at home for the second out. Joe Tardif (Cutchogue/Mattituck) followed with an RBI single to left and Danny Coleman (Saratoga Springs) hit a two-run triple to center to give the Red Dragons a 13-10 lead. Isiah Hudson (Hyde Park/FDR), who entered in the top of the eighth, retired Oswego in order in the ninth to secure the victory.
Perivolaris finished 3-for-4 with walk, Varian went 2-for-4 with a homer, four RBI and three runs, and Pragana, Tardif and Coleman each drove in two runs. Myers walked three times and scored twice. For Oswego, Dellicarri was 2-for-4 with a homer, walk and four RBI, Gruarin went 1-for-2 with a walk and three RBI, and Ryan Enos was 2-for-4 with a double, walk and three runs. Olsson and Brandon Nicholson each finished with two hits.
Cortland 4, Oswego 2
Unlike the offensive slugfest in the first game, the second contest, a seven-inning matchup, featured a solid pitching matchup between Cortland's Matt Valin (LaFargeville) and Oswego's Nick DeMarco. Valin, now 6-0 on the season, allowed just four hits and two runs with one walk and nine strikeouts in seven innings. DeMarco gave up seven hits and one walk and fanned seven with four runs allowed in six innings.
Oswego went up 2-0 in the top of the first. Paul Tammaro was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning and Olsson hit a two-out, two-run homer to left center. Cortland answered with three runs in the bottom of the first on singles by Scott Giordano (Croton-on-Hudson/Croton-Harmon) and Colin BeVard (Syracuse/West Genesee), a Dan Schweitzer (Poughquag/Arlington) two-run triple, and a balk that pushed Schweitzer home.
Oswego stranded a runner on third in both the third and fourth innings, and in the fifth had a runner thrown out at home trying to score from first after a hit and a brief misplay in the outfield. Cortland left runners on first and third in the third, but eventually broke through for an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth on a two-out Perivolaris solo homer to right. Oswego opened the seventh with a single by Nick Chilson, but Valin struck out the next hitter and induced a game-ending double play grounder to third.
Schweitzer finished 2-for-3 with two RBI. Giordano extended his streak of reaching base safely to 27 games with his hit in Game 2 along with a walk in Game 1. BeVard was 1-for-3, but had his 17-game hitting streak snapped in the opener after going 0-for-5 with a walk. BeVard, however, has now reached base safely in 19 consecutive games.