CORTLAND, N.Y. – Tournament MVP Mark DeMilio (Valhalla) went 4-for-5 with a homer, double, two RBI and three runs scored as Cortland defeated Oswego, 10-3, in the SUNYAC Baseball Tournament Championship Game. Oswego forced a winner-take-all title game earlier in the day with a 3-1 win that snapped Cortland's 17-game winning streak.
Cortland (36-3), ranked first nationally in Div. III, won its fifth straight SUNYAC crown and 33rd overall. The Red Dragons earned an automatic berth into the NCAA tournament and will make their 23rd consecutive NCAA appearance – the longest active streak nationally in Div. III. NCAA pairings will be announced May 11, and Cortland will serve as the host school at a regional held May 13-17 at Falcon Park in Auburn, N.Y.
DeMilio batted .438 with a homer, triple, two doubles, seven runs and two RBI and played errorless ball at second base in four tournament games. He was joined on the all-tournament teammates Nick Hart (Fredonia), Austin Clock (Niskayuna), Patrick Schetter (Beacon), Seth Lamando (Hopewell Junction/Roy C. Ketcham) and Brandon Serio (Bedford Hills/Fox Lane), along with Oswego's Jordan Giller, John Rauseo, Tim Cronin and Wes Randall and Brockport's Wesley Burghardt.
Hart batted a team-high .462 with four RBI and three runs over the weekend. Clock hit .429 with two doubles, five RBI and three runs and Schetter hit .429 with two doubles, a triple and five RBI. Serio won Cortland's opener versus Fredonia with seven and a third innings of three-hit ball, allowing no earned runs, and Lamando threw eight and a third inning before allowing a hit in a win over Brockport in the winner's bracket game Saturday.
Oswego 3, Cortland 1
The second-seeded Lakers forced a final game behind a complete-game victory from Cronin. He allowed six hits and one run with two strikeouts and three walks. Brandon McClain (Coram/Longwood) was the tough-luck loser for Cortland after giving up only one run on seven hits in seven innings. He struck out one and walked two.
Oswego stranded runners on second and third in the first inning and a runner on third in the second, but finally broke through for a run in the fourth. The leadoff batter singled, but was picked off first. The next three batters - Giller, Rauseo and Randall - all singled to load the bases. A fielder's choice resulted in a force at home for the second out, but a wild pitch allowed Rauseo to score.
The Lakers also scored in similar fashion in the top of the eighth to take a 2-0 lead. Myles Kutscher walked with one out, then moved to second on a wild pickoff throw. He took third on a groundout and scored on a wild pitch.
Cortland put a run on the board in the eighth when Conrad Ziemendorf (Penfield/Webster Schroeder) doubled with one out and scored on Anthony Simon's (Suffern/Don Bosco Prep (NJ)) bad-hop RBI single. Oswego, however, got that run back on Kyle Simmons' RBI single in the top of the ninth.
Randall finished 3-for-3 and Brian Hamilton was 2-for-5 for the Lakers. Simon went 2-for-2 and was twice hit by a pitch for the Red Dragons.
Cortland 10, Oswego 3
Cortland jumped out early in the title game with a run in the first and four in the second to take a 5-0 lead. DeMilio led off the first with a single and eventually scored on Simon's sac fly. In the second, Schetter doubled, Clock reached on an error during a sac bunt, and Fabio Ricci (Hawthorne/Westlake), Connor Manderson (New Hartford) and DeMilio followed with three consecutive RBI singles. Manderson scored two batters later on a Vinny Bomasuto (Dunkirk) sac fly.
Oswego scored single runs in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings, but each time Cortland responded with at least one run of its own. Rauseo hit a solo homer in the fourth as part of his 4-for-4 effort, but DeMilio led off the bottom of the inning with a double and scored on a Bomasuto RBI single. Dan Saccocio singled in a run for the Lakers in the fifth, answered by a Clock RBI single in the bottom of the frame.
Oswego loaded the bases with no outs in the sixth on three singles, the last two on bunts by Rauseo and Randall. Adam Brant (Staatsburg/Our Lady of Lourdes) replaced starter Alex Weingarten (East Rockaway/Lynbrook) at that point and got two foul outs, the second of which by Simmons drove in a run, and got the final out on a diving catch by Donny Castaldo (Mount Kisco/Fox Lane) in right field to end the inning.
DeMilio and Bomasuto hit solo homers in the bottom of the sixth, and Cortland finished the scoring in the seventh on a Castaldo RBI single.
Weingarten improved to 7-1 with the win after going five innings. He gave up eight hits and three runs, walked two and fanned three. Brant allowed two hits and a walk in two and two thirds inning of relief. Bomasuto, who went 2-for-2 with three RBI as Cortland's designated hitter, entered to pitch in the eighth and retired all four batters he faced to wrap up the game. Ziemendorf, Schetter and Ricci each went 2-for-4 for Cortland.