Washington, Pa. – SUNY Cortland currently ranked #4/#8 in the country in a pair national polls, advanced to Monday's NCAA Mideast Regional championship round with a 22-4 victory over Keystone College on Sunday afternoon at Washington & Jefferson College's Ross Memorial Park.
 
The second-seeded Red Dragons (37-8) will face fourth-seeded Washington & Jefferson in the championship round needing two wins over the Presidents to claim the regional title and earn a berth in the NCAA Division III Collegiate World Series in Appleton, Wisconsin.
 
Keystone, the #6 seed in this spring's regional bracket, ends another outstanding season with a 33-15 overall record after finishing third out of eight teams in a tough Mideast Regional field.  The Giants, who won their ninth straight Colonial States Athletic Conference championship and 13^th straight overall conference title this spring, and advanced to the final four of the regional tournament for the fourth time in the last seven years.
 
Keystone loaded the bases with two outs in the bottom of the first inning, but Cortland, who advanced to Sunday's game against Keystone by defeating DePauw 9-0 in the first game of the day, escaped the jam with an inning-ending groundout.
 
The Red Dragons then scored two runs in the top of the second inning as Patrick Schetter led off the inning with a home run before Marcos Perivolaris tripled and came in on a wild pitch to give Cortland a 2-0 advantage.
 
The Giants threatened again in the home second, putting runners on the corners with one out, but the Red Dragons got a double play to end the inning and keep Keystone off the board before opening up a 4-0 advantage on RBI hits from Tyler Phillips and Schetter. 
 
Austin Chaszar (Bordentown, N.J./Bordentown Regional) cut Keystone's deficit in half with two outs in the bottom of the third inning, launching a two-run home run down the left field line for his second home run in as many games to make it a 4-2 ballgame.
 
Cortland broke the game open in the visitor's fourth, loading the bases with an error, a hit batsman, and an intentional walk before Phillips connected on a grand slam home run to left center to give the Red Dragons an 8-2 advantage.
 
After escaping another bases-loaded threat in the Keystone fourth, Cortland pushed its lead to 11-2 in the top of the fifth inning, getting a sacrifice fly from Perivolaris and a two-run single from Steven Figueroa.
 
The Giants narrowed their deficit to eight runs in the bottom of the fifth inning as Chaszar scored on a RBI single from Sebastian De La Cruz (Port Jervis, N.Y./Port Jervis), but the Red Dragons put any hopes of a Keystone comeback to bed by scoring 11 runs on nine hits and one error in the top visitor's sixth to open up a 22-3 cushion.
 
Adam Kelly (Beach Lake, Pa./Honesdale) drew a bases-loaded walk in the bottom of the eighth inning that brought home Matt Fisch (Springbrook Township, Pa./North Pocono) with the game's final run.
 
Cortland starter Mike Harrington was charged with two runs on three hits while fanning a pair of batters in the first 3.1 innings before being relieved by Michael DeCarlo, who was credited with the win after allowing two runs on six hits while picking up five Ks in 4.2 innings.  Ralph Nuzzi pitched a scoreless ninth inning with two hits against to close out the game.
 
Phillips had eight RBI on three hits, Nate Budge drove in four runs, and Schetter had four hits to lead the Red Dragons, who outhit Keystone 19-11 in the contest.
 
Keystone starter Billy Nelson (Moscow, Pa./North Pocono) battled through an injury suffered in the CSAC championship game that kept the senior sidelined through the first three games of the regional tournament to pitch four innings, yielding eight runs – only four of which were earned – on five hits while striking out two batters.     
 
Joe DeAngelis (Auburn, N.Y./Auburn) yielded three runs on three hits in 2/3 of inning before handing the ball off to Jack Simons (Great Falls, Va./The Bullis School), who surrendered four earned runs on three hits while picking up one K.  Dan Maguire (Ocean Township, N.J./Ocean Township) was charged with six runs on five hits before handing the ball off to Tyler Widitz (Phillipsburg, N.J./Phillipsburg), who held Cortland scoreless over the final 3.2 innings with five strikeouts and three hits against.
 
Chaszar went 3-4 with two RBI and two runs scored while De La Cruz added a pair of hits for the Giants, who left 14 runners on base in the season-ending loss.