FREDERICK, Md. - The Hood College baseball team dropped a 4-2 final to visiting No. 8/7 Cortland in the Blazers' season opener. 

At the Plate

• Brad Sawyer went 1-for-3 with a double, a walk, a stolen base and a run batted in. 
• Nick Rampone and Trent Copenhaver each had hits. 
• Daniel Shepherd walked and scored and James DeProspero scored Hood's other run. 

On the Mound

• Jordan Patterson, the first of four Blazer pitchers took the loss. He allowed four runs in five innings. He struck out five, walked one and gave up seven hits. 
• Jake Howell, Jahlin Jean-Baptiste and Des Grimes combined for three scoreless innings of relief. Howell allowed a hit and struck out one in a scoreless 1.2 innings. Jean-Baptiste replaced him and went 1.1 innings of one-hit relief with two strikeouts. Grimes allowed a hit in a scoreless frame in the ninth. 

How it Happened

• With two outs in the first Scott Giordano hit a solo home run to center for a 1-0 lead. 
• The Red Dragons struck again with a three-run third inning. Andrew Michalski doubled with one out and scored on a double by Matt Krafft. Antonio Pragana, who walked in between the two doubles, scored on an RBI single by Giordano to make it 3-0. Colin BeVard hit a sacrifice fly to make it 4-0, knocking in Krafft. 
• Hood began to chip away in the fourth. Shepherd led off with a walk and stole second. He scored on a one-out double off the bat off Sawyer. After Sawyer stole third, Zach Durant struck out the next two batters to get out of the jam. 
• Patterson pitched out of trouble in the fifth. Giordano tripled with one out and BeVard was hit by a pitch. The fifth-year senior struck out the next batter and Joe Kroeger threw BeVard out stealing to end the inning unscathed. 
• In the bottom of the inning, DeProspero was hit by a pitch, stole second and advanced to third on an infield hit by Rampone with no outs. DeProspero made it 4-2 when he scored on a double-play ball. 
• Hood turned a double-play of its own in the sixth inning with two runners on. 
• In the seventh, the Red Dragons had a runner on third when Jean-Baptiste entered the game and struck out BeVard to end the inning. 

For the Opponent

• Giordano finished a double shy of the cycle, drove in two and scored once. 
• Joe Tardif went 2-for-2 off the bench. 
• Durant picked up the win, pitching six innings and allowing two runs on three hits and a walk. He struck out five. 
• Matthew Funk went three scoreless innings for the save. 

Notes

• The Blazers are 0-1 on the year, while Cortland improved to 3-1. 
• The Red Dragons are ranked eighth by the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper and seventh by d3baseball.com. 

Up Next
Hood will look to get into the win column on Saturday, February 22 against RIT in a doubleheader beginning at noon at FCC Baseball Field.