APPLETON, Wisc. – Second-ranked Frostburg State dropped a hard fought 4-1 contest to top-ranked SUNY Cortland on the second day of the 2015 NCAA Division III Championships, Saturday.
 
The loss snapped a four-game winning streak for Frostburg (42-8) and is the first defeat in the double-elimination championship.
 
"Obviously we are disappointed," said Bobcat head coach Guy Robertson. "Anytime you lose a game in a championship setting its difficult, but my hat goes off to those guys, Cortland is a great ball club and they did a great job today."
 
The Red Dragons (42-4) struck first in the first inning and tacked on two more in the third for a 3-0 cushion. Cortland's Anthony Simon singled home a run in the first, while Connor Ziemendorf was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded and Vinny Bomasuto drew a bases loaded walk for the third run.
 
After that, Bobcat starter Clayton Freimuth settled down and limited Cortland to just three hits and a single run over the next five innings of work.
 
"I thought Clayton did an amazing job and settled down from those first two innings," noted Robertson. "He really battled to get us to the point he did, and like he's done all year, he gave us a chance to win the ball game."
 
Frostburg got on the board in the top of the fifth frame to pull within 3-1. Sophomore J.T. Tipton reached on fielding error, freshman Greg Schneider singled through the left side to advance Tipton to second. Senior Ricky Castro, the next batter, singled to center scoring Tipton.
 
Cortland added an insurance run in the eighth to increase its lead to 4-1.
 
Freimuth tossed 7.0 innings and surrendered four earned runs on eight hits. He struckout four and raised his season total to 101 and became just the third player in school history with 100 or more strikeouts in a season. Junior Zach Lawhorn, along with freshmen Daniel Richardson and Tyler Hoffman each pitched 0.1 innings in relief of Freimuth.
 
"They played a little bit better than we did and we'll just come back tomorrow and we'll try and put our best foot forward," added Robertson.
 
Schneider and senior Ricky Brady each finished with two hits, while Castro drove in the Bobcats lone run.
 
Frostburg State returns to action tomorrow when it takes on Ramapo at 10:00 am (CT) in an elimination contest. Ramapo defeated Webster, 14-2, earlier this afternoon in the first elimination game of the 2015 NCAA Championship. If Frostburg defeats Ramapo, the Bobcats will face Cortland tomorrow afternoon at 4:30 pm (CT).

----------

Clayton Freimuth … On his pitching
"The first two innings they put good swings on the ball and they hit a lot of singles. Normally, those singles go to someone (on defense), today they happened to find gaps. I didn't change my approach at all after that second inning. I just got back out there and tried to keep it low in the zone."