ASHLAND, VA. – Cortland scored four unearned runs in the top of the 10th inning and the nationally seventh-ranked Red Dragons defeated host Randolph-Macon, 12-9, to earn a split of the two-day, two-game series with the Yellow Jackets.
The Red Dragons improved to 2-1 with the victory. Randolph-Macon, which defeated Cortland, 8-4, on Saturday, suffered its first loss of the year and is now 4-1.
Scott Giordano (Croton-on-Hudson/Croton-Harmon) reached base five times on a two-run triple and four walks and scored twice. James Varian (Hopewell Junction/Trinity-Pawling) finished 3-for-5 with a double and an RBI, Colin BeVard (Syracuse/West Genesee) went 2-for-4 with two walks, two RBI and two runs, and Matt Krafft (Cornwall) and Andrew Michalski (Buffalo/St. Francis) each registered two hits, an RBI and a run. Cortland out-hit the hosts, 12-9.
Ryan Duphorn finished 3-for-6 with a triple, two RBI and two runs and Reece Yeargain was 2-for-3 with two walks, an RBI and a run for Randolph-Macon. Cole Grinde finished 1-for-3 with two walks.
Cortland led 8-3 before Randolph-Macon rallied to tie the game with five runs in the bottom of the eighth. The big plays in the inning were RBI singles by Grinde and Spencer Pietruszynski, a wild pitch that scored a run, and Duphorn's game-tying two-run triple. The Yellow Jackets had the bases loaded before a flyout ended the inning and kept the game tied. Randolph-Macon also had a leadoff walk in the bottom of the ninth, but Cortland turned a bunt to third into a 5-4-3 double play, and a flyout ended the inning.
Giordano walked with one out. He was caught on a pickoff, but beat the throw to second for a stolen base. BeVard walked, and with two outs Garrett Hunter (Virginia Beach, VA/Frank W. Cox) walked to load the bases. Pinch hitter Anthony Donofrio (Massapequa/St. Anthony's) hit a grounder to first base that was misplayed. The first baseman recovered and flipped to the pitcher covering, but Donofrio beat the toss with a headfirst slide to give Cortland the lead. Krafft beat out a grounder to second for an RBI single to extend the lead to 10-8, and an error on a Michalski grounder allowed two runs to score. Randolph-Macon scored once in the top of the 10th when Duphorn singled and went to third on an error during the play – Cortland's lone error of the game – and scored on Ricky Gannett's groundout.
Cortland led 2-0 in the top of the third on Giordano's two-run triple. The hosts scored three times in the bottom of the inning on two singles, a hit batter, a Shawn Nickles bases-loaded walk and a JT Fitzpatrick two-out bases-loaded hit-by-pitch.
The Red Dragons regained the lead with two runs in the fourth. After Varian's double put runners on second and third with no outs, Wyatt Myers (Chittenango) grounded out to drive in a run, and two batters later Michalski hit an RBI single up the middle. In the fifth, Giordano walked, went to third on a wild pickoff throw and scored on BeVard's infield single, and BeVard eventually scored on a Varian single to right center to make it 6-3. Cortland added single runs in the seventh on a Myers RBI single and the eighth on a BeVard bases-loaded walk.
Scott Roberts (Escondido, CA/Del Norte), the third of four Cortland relievers, earned the win after entering the game midway through the eighth inning and throwing two innings. Joe Valentino (West Islip) started and gave up three runs in two and a third innings. David Lyskawa (East Amherst/Williamsville North) tossed two and two thirds innings of hitless and scoreless relief. Bailey Gauthier (Camillus/West Genesee) kept the Yellow Jackets scoreless in the sixth and seventh before getting in trouble to start the eighth. He was charged with three of the five runs that inning. Paul Franzese (Somers) gave up one hit and one unearned run in the 10th.
Zack Radcliffe took the loss for Randolph-Macon. He walked three batters but did not allow any hits and was charged with three unearned runs. Matt Nickles started and gave up four runs on three hits and four walks with five strikeouts in three and two thirds innings.
Cortland heads to Maryland next weekend for three games – a contest Friday at Hood College and games Saturday and Sunday at 13th-ranked Salisbury.