AUBURN, N.Y. – Cortland scored four runs in the top of the seventh to overcome a 5-2 deficit and the Red Dragons defeated RPI, 7-5, in the winner's bracket final of the NCAA Div. III Baseball New York Regional.
Cortland (39-4), ranked first nationally, is 3-0 at the eight-team, double-elimination regional and advances to Saturday's championship round. Cortland trailed after six innings in all three of its regional wins so far.
RPI (28-16) will play Saturday at 1 p.m. versus either Keystone or Oberlin, and the winner will play 5 p.m. versus Cortland. The Red Dragons need a win either Saturday or Sunday to win the regional and advance to the NCAA Div. III World Series.
(NOTE: The last game Friday (Keystone vs. Oberlin) was halted by rain with Keystone leading 4-1 in the bottom of the sixth and will be resumed Saturday at 10 a.m.)
Alex Weingarten (East Rockaway/Lynbrook) improved to 8-1 despite allowing 10 hits and five runs in seven innings. He struck out three and did not walk any batters. Travis Laitar (Fergus, ON/Centre Wellington) entered in the eighth and retired all six batters he faced, three by strikeout, for his fourth save of the season.
Sean Conroy allowed six runs, two earned, in seven innings and took the loss. He allowed 10 hits, struck out six and walked two.
Cortland's go-ahead rally in the seventh started with one out when Mark DeMilio (Valhalla) was hit by a pitch. Nick Hart (Fredonia) reached on an error, but Conroy fanned the next batter for the second out. Conrad Ziemendorf (Penfield/Webster Schroeder) singled through the right side to drive in DeMilio and Anthony Simon (Suffern/Don Bosco Prep (NJ)) doubled to left to drive home two runs and tie the game at 5-5.
Simon went to third on a wild pitch and Austin Clock (Niskayuna) drew a walk. Clock and Simon then pulled off a first-and-third double steal with Simon scoring the go-ahead run. The Red Dragons added an insurance run in the ninth on singles by Hart and Vinny Bomasuto (Dunkirk), a Ziemendorf sac bunt and a Simon sac fly.
RPI led 1-0 in the third on Tim LeSuer's sac fly, but Cortland tied the game in the fourth when Clock led off with a double and eventually scored on a double play grounder. The Red Dragons went up 2-1 in the fifth on a DeMilio leadoff triple and Hart RBI single.
The Engineers broke through for four runs in the fifth to take a 5-2 lead. Matt Lawrence and Chris Holomakoff led off with singles and were bunted to second and third by Shane Matthews. Weingarten struck out a batter for the second out, but Jared Jensen hit a two-run triple to right center to give the Engineers the lead. After a hit batter, Nick Palmiero and Thomas Desmond hit back-to-back RBI singles.
After Cortland took the lead in the top of the seventh, RPI was poised to tie the game in the bottom of the frame. Tyler Listing led off with a double and Jensen bunted him to third. LeSuer hit a line drive to center and Listing tried tagging from third, but Ziemendorf threw him out at the plate to end the inning and preserve Cortland's lead.
Hart, Bomasuto, Ziemendorf and Justin Teague (Syracuse/Cicero-North Syracuse) each went 2-for-4 and Simon drove in three runs for Cortland. Jensen finished 2-for-3 with two RBI, while Listing, Palmiero and Desmond each were 2-for-4 for RPI.
The victory was the 1,500th in Cortland's program history since "modern" records were first kept in 1925. From 1925-2015, Cortland baseball has a combined record of 1,500-644-12.