CORTLAND, N.Y. – Brandon Serio (Bedford Hills/Fox Lane) allowed three hits and one unearned run in seven and a third innings as Cortland opened SUNYAC Tournament play with a 14-5 win over Fredonia.
Cortland (34-2), the top seed and ranked first nationally in Div. III, will face third seed Brockport in a winner's bracket game Saturday at 1 p.m., while the fourth-seeded Blue Devils (14-18) will play second seed Oswego in an elimination game at 10 a.m. Saturday. Brockport defeated Oswego, 8-7, in Friday's second game.
Serio struck out five and walked none as he ran his record to 7-0 on the season. Nick Hart (Fredonia) finished 4-for-4 with a sac fly, four RBI, two steals and two runs and Mark DeMilio (Valhalla) went 2-for-3 with a triple, double, hit-by-pitch and two runs. Adam Smith (Vestal) went 2-for-2 off the bench, Anthony Simon (Suffern/Don Bosco Prep (NJ)) was 2-for-4 with two runs, and Austin Clock (Niskayuna) doubled and drove in three runs.
Ciro Frontale was 2-for-4 with an RBI to lead Fredonia. Starter Jake Harford only lasted one inning and gave up four runs on four hits.
Cortland's four-run first inning started with a DeMilio triple and a Hart sac fly. Conrad Ziemendorf (Penfield/Webster Schroeder) walked, Simon singled and Clock hit a two-run double. Donny Castaldo (Mount Kisco/Fox Lane) drove in the final run with a groundout to second.
Hart singled in a run in the second to extend the lead to 5-0. Fredonia scored a run in the fourth on a Vincent Sherman single, an error and a RickyMendiola RBI groundout.
Cortland broke the game open with seven runs in the fifth. Clock drove in the first run with a sac fly, and two batters later Matthew Michalski (Buffalo/St. Francis) grounded out to short to bring in a run. Patrick Schetter (Beacon) followed with a two-run single, and after two batters were hit by pitches, Hart hit a two-run single and Ziemendorf singled in a run. The Red Dragons' final runs came on a wild pitch and Sean Getman's (Oneonta) RBI groundout.
Fredonia scored four runs in the ninth with the benefit of two Cortland errors. Brian Castonguay drove in a run with an infield single, with an error on the play allowing another run to score. Quinn Danahy followed with an RBI groundout and Frontale tripled in the last run.