Cortland Head Coach Joe Brown Reaches Career 800-Win Mark in Sweep at Oneonta

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ONEONTA, N.Y. - Cortland baseball head coach Joe Brown earned his 800th career victory as the nationally seventh-ranked Red Dragons swept host Oneonta, 6-1 and 4-0, in a SUNYAC doubleheader. Brown, Cortland's head coach since 2000, became the second-fastest head coach in Division III baseball history to reach the 800-win mark. He accomplished the feat in 1,024 games (800-220-4), while Don Schaly, who coached at Marietta (Ohio) from 1964-2003, reached the mark in 1,005 games (800-197-8) on the way to his 1,438 career wins. 
 
Cortland (15-6, 2-0 SUNYAC) will complete its three-game series at Oneonta on Saturday. The tentative start time for that game is noon, but may be moved earlier due to the weather forecast. 
 
Cortland 6, Oneonta
 
Anthony Fusco (Yorktown Heights/Yorktown) improved to 3-1 on the season after allowing one run on five hits in six and two thirds innings. He struck out one and walked one. Shane Mugnolo (Howard Beach/Xaverian) earned the save after giving up just one hit and fanning one in two and a third scoreless innings. He entered in the bottom of the seventh with Cortland up 4-1 and runners on second and third with two outs and got a flyout to end the inning. The only batters to reach versus Mugnolo after that were on a leadoff double in the eighth and a two-out error in the ninth. 
 
Seven Cortland players registered multiple hits as the Red Dragons outhit Oneonta, 15-6. Mat Bruno (Rye) finished 3-for-5, James Varian (Hopewell Junction/Trinity-Pawling) was 2-for-3 with an RBI and was hit by pitches twice, Andrew Michalski (Buffalo/St. Francis) went 2-for-3, Danny Coleman (Saratoga Springs) finished 2-for-4 with a double, walk and two RBI, and Antonio Pragana (Hopewell Junction/John Jay) was 2-for-4 with a double, RBI and two runs scored. Ben Rhodes (Amsterdam) and Matthew Krafft (Cornwall) each went 2-for-5, with Rhodes driving in a run. 
 
Anthony Gonzalez finished 2-for-4 and Nathaniel Guillen was 1-for-3 with a double for Oneonta. Starter Kyle Roper allowed six runs, five earned, in seven and two thirds innings. 
 
Cortland scored in the second on a Rhodes RBI single and in the third on Varian's RBI base hit. Coleman's two-run double in the fourth made it 4-0. Oneonta plated its run in the seventh on a Jake Barrett walk, a steal and a two-out Liam Kaseta RBI single. Cortland added two insurance runs in the eighth on Pragana's RBI double and an error later in the inning. 
 
Cortland 4, Oneonta
 
Zack Durant (Verona/V-V-S) and Patrick Dalton (Bethpage) combined for a two-hit shutout in the seven-inning second game. Durant, now 3-0, gave up two hits and a walk and fanned three in five innings. Dalton allowed only one runner over the last two innings on a two-out walk in the seventh. 
 
Oneonta starter Michael Losak went the full seven innings and gave up four hits and four runs, two earned. He struck out seven and walked three. 
 
Cortland grabbed a 1-0 lead in the top of the fourth when Bruno led off with a triple and scored on an error during the play. The Red Dragons tallied three times in the fifth with the help of two errors along with a Pragana RBI infield single and a Scott Giordano (Croton-on-Hudson/Croton-Harmon) sacrifice fly. 
 
Giordano finished 1-for-1 with a walk, sac fly and RBI and Pragana went 1-for-2 with an RBI. Kaseta was 1-for-2 and Gonzalez went 1-for-3 to account for the two hits by Oneonta (5-12, 0-2 SUNYAC).