CORTLAND, N.Y. - The Cortland baseball team scored eight runs in the sixth inning and defeated Oswego, 10-5, in the opening round of the 2023 SUNYAC tournament at Wallace Field. 
 
The top-seed Red Dragons will take on second seed Brockport in the first game of the day on Friday beginning at noon. Brockport defeated Oneonta, 12-2, in Thursday's second game. Oneonta and Oswego are scheduled to meet at 3:30 p.m. Friday in an elimination game. 
 
Cortland is now 30-9 on the season and reached the 30-win plateau for the 18th consecutive season (not counting the COVID-shortened 2020 season) and for the 28th time in the last 29 complete seasons. Oswego dropped to 19-20 with the loss. 
 
Cortland banged out 15 hits in the contest. Zachary Kringdon (Larchmont/Mamaroneck) went 3-for-3 with an RBI and a run scored. Andrew Michalski (Buffalo/St. Francis) was 2-for-3 with two RBI and a run scored. Adam Mieczkowski (Vestal) and Matt Bruno (Rye) each had a pair of hits and an RBI and Chris Bonacci (Syracuse/West Genesee) added two hits and a run scored to pace the Red Dragons. 
 
Anthony Barone led the Oswego offense, going 2-for-3 with an RBI. Jacob Levine, Tishawn Featherstone and Blake Van Dreason each drove in a run for the Lakers. 
 
Anthony Fusco (Yorktown Heights/Yorktown) (3-1) earned the win in relief. Fusco threw three and two-thirds scoreless innings. He gave up two hits and two walks and struck out one. The loss went to Oswego starter Kieran Finnegan, who allowed eight runs in five and two thirds innings. 
 
The Red Dragons took a 1-0 in the bottom of the first inning with a two-out double by Bruno and an RBI single by Mieczkowski. 
 
Cortland starter Bryan Bernard (Howell, NJ) retired 10 of the first 11 batters he faced. With one out in the top of the fourth, Levine cracked a long home run to left field to put the Lakers on the scoreboard. Bernard hit the next two batters he faced and was relieved by Bradley Battaglini (West Islip), who hit the first batter he faced and gave up back-to-back walks to Van Dreason and Barone with the bases loaded to force in two runs. Fusco came on and retired the first batter before a passed ball plated the Lakers' fourth run of the inning. Fusco induced a fielder's choice to end the inning and Oswego led 4-1. 
 
Cortland sent 12 men to the plate in the bottom of the sixth. Mieczkowski started the inning with an infield single but was erased when MacKenzie hit into a fielder's choice. Matthew Krafft (Cornwall) singled, putting runners on first and third. With one out, Kringdon and Michalski each stroked RBI singles to pull Cortland to within a run. Bonacci notched an infield hit to load the bases and Nick Chemotti (Warners/West Genesee) tallied a two-run single and the Red Dragons regained the lead. Bruno followed with an RBI single, which chased Finnegan from the game. Oswego reliever Anthony Van Fossen started by walking Mieczkowski to reload the bases and MacKenzie followed with a bases-clearing triple to right center which extended Cortland's lead to 9-4. 
 
Cortland added a run in the bottom of the seventh. Holliday led off with a double down the left field line, followed by back-to-back sacrifice bunts by Kringdon and Michalski which brought Holliday around to score Cortland's final run of the afternoon. Oswego scored a run in the top of the eighth on an RBI double by Featherstone to close the scoring.