CORTLAND, N.Y. – The nationally 22nd-ranked Cortland baseball team scored in five consecutive innings on the way to an 11-4 win in the opener and received a strong combined pitching outing from Ryan Flansburg (Queensbury) and Shane Mugnolo (Howard Beach/Xaverian) in a 3-1 win the second game as the Red Dragons swept Brockport in the best-of-three SUNYAC semifinals.
 
Cortland (25-5), the top seed from the East division, will host Oswego, the top seed from the West, in the best-of-three finals Friday and Saturday, May 21-22. The teams will play twice Friday, starting at noon, and a third game, if needed, on Saturday at noon. Oswego swept Oneonta in the other league semifinal series. Cortland and Oswego have met in each of the last four SUNYAC tournament finals, under the usual double-elimination format, with Oswego winning in 2018 and 2019 and Cortland winning in 2015 and 2016. The 2017 SUNYAC tournament was canceled due to the weather, and the 2020 season was halted in mid-March due to COVID-19.
 
Brockport, the West second seed, closes the season with an 18-7 record.
 
Cortland 11, Brockport 4
 
Cortland recorded 11 hits in the opener. James Varian (Hopewell Junction/Trinity-Pawling) and Paul Franzese (Somers) each were 3-for-4 with an RBI and two runs scored. Matthew Krafft (Cornwall) was 2-for-2 with three RBI, while Scott Giordano (Croton-on-Hudson/Croton-Harmon) and Daniel Coleman (Saratoga Springs) each homered.
 
Tom Kretzler went 3-for-5 with an RBI, Ryan Voight was 2-for-4 with a walk, and Nicholas Pastore went 2-for-5 with an RBI for Brockport.
 
Zack Durant (Verona/V-V-S) started for Cortland and gave up five hits, four walks and two runs in four-plus innings. He struck out two. He was pulled early in the fifth inning and did not qualify for the win. Spencer Weyand (Hornell) entered with a 2-0 count on a batter and eventually finished a walk that was charged to Durant, then gave up a Kretzler RBI single and induced a groundout. Bailey Gauthier (Camillus/West Genesee) came in at that point and allowed a Daniel Delgaizo RBI double and a Pastore RBI single, but settled down after that to keep Cortland ahead 6-4 and went the rest of the way for the win. Gauthier officially allowed one run on three hits with three walks and five strikeouts over four and two third innings and is 5-1 on the season.
 
Andrew Huffman took the loss after giving up six runs, five earned, on six hits in three and a third innings. He walked three and struck out one.

Cortland escaped some early jams as Brockport had runners on first and third with two outs in the first and a leadoff triple by Pastore along with a one-out walk in the second, but couldn't score in either inning. In the third, Ryan Mansell led off with a single and Kretzler doubled, but Mansell was thrown out at home on the play on a relay from centerfielder Giordano to shortstop Ben Rhodes (Amsterdam) to catcher Varian. Two foul outs ended the inning.
 
The Red Dragons scored in the second on a Krafft RBI single and three times in the third on Giordano's two-run homer and a Krafft RBI double. The lead grew to 6-0 in the fourth on sacrifice flies by Colin BeVard (Syracuse/West Genesee) and Varian.
 
After Brockport scored its four runs in the top of the fifth, Cortland responded in the bottom of the inning. Krafft walked and moved to second on a wild pitch, and Rhodes was hit by a pitch. After an Andrew Michalski (Buffalo/St. Francis) sac bunt, Coleman hit a three-run homer to straightaway center to put Cortland up 9-4. The Red Dragons picked up two more runs in the sixth on a Varian single, a Franzese RBI triple and a Krafft sac fly.
 
Cortland 3, Brockport 1
 
Flansburg upped his record to 5-0 after giving up five hits and one run in six-plus innings. He struck out four and walked two. Mugnolo entered in the seventh with Cortland up 3-0 after Pastore had led off the inning with a single. Pastore eventually scored after a single, a double play, and a Justin Pangburn RBI single, but Mugnolo avoided any further damage. He then gave up a two-out single in the eighth, and in the ninth allowed a one-out single before a double play ended the game.
 
Cortland scored an unearned run to take a 1-0 lead in the third. Antonio Pragana (Hopewell Junction/John Jay) reached second on a throwing error with one out and scored on BeVard's single up the middle. In the fourth, Krafft led off with a single, stole second and scored on a Franzese double. Franzese moved to third after a flyout and scored when Michalski beat out a squeeze bunt for an RBI single.
 
Franzese closed the game 2-for-3 with a walk and RBI and Krafft was 2-for-4 as Cortland finished with seven hits. Voight went 2-for-3 with a walk and Pastore and Skylar Ohrvall each were 2-for-4 as part of Brockport's nine-hit attack.
 
Kretzler started for Brockport and gave up three runs, two earned, on six hits in six innings. He struck out four and didn't walk anyone. Trevor McCarthy pitched two scoreless frames of relief, allowing one hit and one walk with one strikeout.