CORTLAND, N.Y. – Cortland scored four runs each in the second and third innings and the Red Dragons held on to defeat visiting Clarkson, 8-6, in non-league baseball action. Cortland won its seventh straight game to improve to 12-7. 
 
Bryan Bernard (Howell, NJ), the first pitcher for Cortland in a predetermined alignment, earned the win after pitching two-plus innings. He allowed three hits and no walks, struck out four and gave up three runs, two earned. Tommy Lynch (West Seneca/Canisius), the last of Cortland's six hurlers, earned the save. He entered in the top of the eighth with Cortland up 8-6 and the potential go-ahead run at the plate. He struck out a batter to end the eighth and retired the Golden Knights in order in the ninth. 
 
Cortland also received strong bullpen outings from Grant Biederman (Huntington Station/Walt Whitman) and Justin Patsey (Hyde Park/Franklin D. Roosevelt). Biederman gave up one run on three hits with one strikeout and no walks in two innings. Patsey tossed three scoreless innings with four strikeouts, one walk and two hits allowed. 
 
Matthew Krafft (Cornwall) finished 2-for-3 with a double, hit-by-pitch and four RBI. Mat Bruno (Rye) went 2-for-4 with a walk and two runs scored, while Chris Bonacci (Syracuse/West Genesee) and Nick Chemotti (Warners/West Genesee) each were 2-for-5. Zachary Kringdon (Larchmont/Mamaroneck) was 1-for-2 with a double, hit-by-pitch, RBI and two runs and Adam Mieczkowski (Vestal) finished 1-for-2, was hit by pitches twice, drove in a run and scored twice. 
 
Joe Pagano, Kent Wilson and Caleb Doyle each registered two hits and Colby Brouillette and Quinn Maslowski each drove in two runs for the Golden Knights (4-9). Clarkson starter Joseph Godomsky allowed four runs, three earned, in two innings. Jason McGee, the team's second reliever, allowed a run on four hits over three innings with two strikeouts and Cole Riskin threw two scoreless innings with two hits allowed and one strikeout. 
 
Clarkson grabbed a 2-0 lead in the top of the first. With a runner on first and one out, Brouillette hit a triple to right center. The throw to third was wild and left the playing area, allowing Brouillette to score. 
 
Cortland's four-run bottom of the second began with a strange play. Bruno struck out on a pitch that was wild and went to the backstop. The Clarkson catcher had trouble locating where the ball went, allowing Bruno to keep advancing to second, and then a wild throw to second advanced Bruno to third. Kringdon followed with an RBI double, Mieczkowski was hit by a pitch, Dylan Tierney (East Greenbush/Columbia) bunted the runners to second and third, and Krafft hit a two-run double to right. Krafft eventually scored when Bonacci reached on a two-out error. 
 
Brouillette's sac fly in the top of the third made it 4-3, but Cortland put up a four-spot in the bottom of the inning on a Mieczkowski bases-loaded hit-by-pitch, a Tierney RBI single and a Krafft two-run single. 
 
Clarkson got a run back in the fifth on a Wilson RBI single, but a lineout double play on the next batter ended the inning. In the eighth, Wilson led off with a single and Brouillette walked. The Golden Knights loaded the bases two batters later when Cam Jerrett was hit by a pitch. With two outs, Maslowski singled to drive in two runs and make it 8-6 before Lynch came in and halted the rally.