OSWEGO, N.Y. –The Cortland baseball team clinched the SUNYAC regular-season title and earned the right to host the four-team conference postseason tournament May 1-3 with a doubleheader sweep at Oswego. The nationally top-ranked Red Dragons (29-2, 14-1 SUNYAC) turned a triple play in the bottom of the seventh to seal a 3-1 win in the seven-inning opener. Cortland locked up the league's top seed with a 5-1 victory in the nine-inning nightcap.
Cortland has hosted the SUNYAC tournament every year since 1997. That includes every season since 1998, the first year that the conference switched from a divisional format to a full-league format in which the top seed is granted tournament hosting rights.
Game 1: Cortland 3, Oswego 1
Junior Seth Lamando (Hopewell Junction/Roy C. Ketcham) threw a three-hitter with six strikeouts and two walks to improve to 4-0 on the season. He retired the first 11 batters he faced before allowing an Eric Hamilton solo homer in the fourth that cut Cortland's lead to 3-1.
In the bottom of the seventh, Hamilton drew a leadoff walk and Myles Kutscher singled through the right side. The next batter then popped up a bunt to Lamando, who threw to shortstop Anthony Simon (Suffern/Don Bosco Prep (NJ)) to double up Hamilton. Simon then threw to first baseman Austin Clock (Niskayuna) to double up Kutscher to end the game and give Cortland's its first triple play since the opening game of the 2010 NCAA Div. III Regionals versus Castleton State.
Cortland took the lead with two runs in the third off Oswego starter Brendyn Karinchak. Sophomore Matthew Michalski (Buffalo/St. Francis) led off with a single and went to second on a wild pitch. On an ensuing bunt by Patrick Schetter (Beacon), Michalski was caught in a rundown between second and third. A throwing error, however, allowed Michalski to reach third and Schetter to go to second. Justin Teague (Syracuse/Cicero-North Syracuse) followed with an RBI groundout to second. Donny Castaldo (Mount Kisco/Fox Lane) was hit by a pitch, and Conrad Ziemendorf (Penfield/Webster Schroeder) brought in a run with a fielder's choice force out.
The Red Dragons added a run in the fourth when Simon singled, moved to second on a Clock sac bunt and scored on Mark DeMilio's (Valhalla) RBI single to center.
Karinchak held Cortland to four hits but walked four batters and hit one. He struck out five, and only one of the three runs he allowed was earned.
Game 2: Cortland 5, Oswego 1
Brandon McClain (Coram/Longwood) threw seven innings for the victory in the second game. He gave up three hits and three walks, struck out four, and allowed one run as he upped his record to 4-0. Travis Laitar (Fergus, ON/Centre Wellington) retired all six batters he faced, three by strikeout, for his third save of the season.
Robert Donnelly went six and a third innings for Oswego (23-8, 14-4 SUNYAC), which will be the second seed at the SUNYAC tournament. Donnelly allowed eight hits, two walks and three unearned runs and he struck out two.
Cortland took a 1-0 lead in the first. DeMilio reached on an one-out error, went to second on a groundout and scored on a Simon single. Oswego tied the game in the fifth when Kyle Simmons stole home on a first-and-third play in which Dan Saccocio got into a rundown but was safe going back to first as Simmons scored. McClain and Laitar, however, combined to retire 13 of the last 14 batters following that play the rest of the way.
The Red Dragons broke the tie with two runs in the seventh. Fabio Ricci (Hawthorne/Westlake) and DeMilio started the inning with back-to-back singles, and they moved to second and third on a Ziemendorf groundout to first. Simon then hit a grounder to the shortstop, who looked back the runner at third, but then threw wildly to first to allow both runners to score. Cortland added two runs in the ninth on RBI singles by Clock and Nick Hart (Fredonia).
Ricci finished 2-for-2 with a walk after entering the game in the third inning. Clock was 2-for-4 with an RBI and Vinny Bomasuto (Dunkirk) went 2-for-5. Saccocio was 2-for-4 and John Rauseo was 1-for-2 with a walk to account for Oswego's three hits.
Cortland wraps its SUNYAC regular-season schedule with a three-game series at Plattsburgh Friday (single game at 3 p.m.) and Saturday (noon doubleheader).