ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Colin BeVard (Syracuse/West Genesee) homered three times, including a pair of inside-the-park home runs in the same inning of Game 2, as Cortland swept a doubleheader versus Brockport, 18-3 and 11-4, at the University of Rochester.
BeVard finished the three-game series versus Brockport with four homers, three of which were inside-the-parkers. He hit one of those Thursday night in a game played at Colburn Park in Newark and hit a traditional over-the-fence homer in the first game of Saturday's doubleheader at Rochester.
Cortland (29-9-1), ranked 22nd nationally, has won 22 of its last 23 games after starting the season 7-8-1. Cortland finished with an 18-0 SUNYAC regular-season record – the Red Dragons' first perfect regular-season mark in league play since going 14-0 in 2008. Cortland has only been 18-0 in SUNYAC play once previously, in 1981, and the Red Dragons registered 12-0 league marks five times between 1991 and 2002.
Cortland 18, Brockport 3
Cortland pounded out 18 hits, including eight for extra bases, and Matt Valin (LaFargeville) allowed one run on two hits with no walks and six strikeouts over five innings to improve to 7-0 on the season. The Red Dragons jumped out quickly with five runs in the first and two in the second in the seven-inning contest. They added a run in the fourth and put the game away with four in the fifth and six in the sixth.
James Varian (Hopewell Junction/Trinity-Pawling) finished 3-for-4 with a triple and three RBI, BeVard was 2-for-5 with a homer, triple and three RBI, and Paul Franzese (Somers) hit a pinch-hit, two-run homer. Wyatt Myers (Chittenango) reached base four times on two singles and two walks in four trips to the plate and Danny Coleman (Saratoga Springs) finished 2-for-3 with a walk.
Myers hit a two-run single and Varian and Marcos Perivolaris (Mattituck) each had RBI singles in Cortland's five-run first. An error and a Perivolaris RBI groundout brought in the Red Dragons' runs in the second to make it 7-0. Brockport got on the board in the bottom of the second on a Tom Kretzler leadoff homer.
Varian tripled home a run in the fourth, and Cortland's top of the fifth featured back-to-back RBI triples by Scott Giordano (Croton-on-Hudson/Croton-Harmon) and BeVard and a Varian RBI single. The Red Dragons sent nine batters to the plate in the fifth and 11 in the sixth. Franzese's two-run homer started the scoring in the sixth, followed later by BeVard's two-run shot over the fence in right. Matt Krafft (Cornwall) doubled in a run two batters later and Mike O'Connor (Buffalo/North Tonawanda) closed the scoring with an RBI single.
Brockport scored its final two runs in the bottom of the seventh on a Matt O'Dair bases-loaded hit by pitch and a Micheal Spulnick RBI fielder's choice.
Cortland 11, Brockport 4
BeVard hit his two inside-the-park homers as part of Cortland's nine-run top of the third that turned a 2-0 deficit into a 9-2 lead. He came up with one out and no one on and legged out a homer to center to draw Cortland within 2-1. Perivolaris tied the game a few batters later with an RBI fielder's choice, and it looked like Brockport was going to get out of the inning on a strikeout with two outs. However, the pitch hit the ground and Brockport couldn't handle the throw to first to allow Antonio Pragana (Hopewell Junction/John Jay) to reach and keep the inning alive while the go-ahead run scored.
Sam Kippen (Lyncourt/Solvay) followed with a two-run triple to left to put Cortland up 5-2. Joe Tardif (Cutchogue/Mattituck) followed with an RBI infield single, took second on a passed ball and scored on a Giordano RBI single. BeVard then hit a ball to deep right center and was able to score standing up for his second inside-the-parker of the inning to finish the nine-run frame.
Neither team scored again until Tom Krentzler hit a two-run homer for Brockport (15-20, 6-12 SUNYAC) in the bottom of the seventh. Brockport's first two runs came via an Aaron Cook two-run single in the bottom of the first. Cortland's two-run eighth included an Andrew Michalski (Buffalo/St. Francis) RBI single.
BeVard finished 4-for-4 with two homers, two singles, a hit by pitch, two steals, three RBI and three runs scored, and for the doubleheader he was a combined 6-for-9 with three homers, six RBI and six runs. Kippen was 2-for-5 with two RBI.
Jake Casey (Homer) entered in relief one batter into the second inning and went five and two thirds innings for the win to up his record to 5-0. He gave up only one hit and two walks, struck out six and allowed one run. Nick Morena (Holbrook/Sachem North), Cortland's third reliever, got the final out of the seventh and finished with two and a third innings of one-hit scoreless ball with four strikeouts and one walk.
Brandon Greenspan allowed eight runs, but only two earned, over two and two thirds innings and suffered the loss. Stuart Martin was the strongest of the Brockport relievers, giving up no runs on two hits with one walk and four strikeouts in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings.