CORTLAND, N.Y. – Trey McGowan's sacrifice fly in the bottom of the ninth drove in the winning run as Oswego defeated Cortland, 7-6, in a final game of a three-game weekend SUNYAC baseball series at Cortland's Wallace Field. Oswego was the "home" team in the contest since the series was originally scheduled to be held at Oswego before being moved to Cortland due to field conditions.
 
Cortland (21-9-1, 11-1 SUNYAC), which had its 15-game winning streak snapped, trailed 6-0 after three innings before rallying for a run in the fifth, four in the seventh and one in the eighth to tie the game. The Red Dragons outhit the Lakers, 15-11, but left 12 men on base.
 
Oswego's winning rally started with a Danny Winchester leadoff walk and a Jelani Hamer single to right. Jacob Levine bunted to advance the runners and was safe due to an error to load the bases with no outs. One out later, in the first at-bat versus Red Dragon reliever Zack Zarrilli (Farmingdale), McGowan hit a ball to medium depth in left center field and Winchester just beat the throw home for the winning run.
 
Oswego (15-11, 5-4 SUNYAC) took a 1-0 lead in the second on a Blake VanDreason RBI fielder's choice. The Lakers pushed across five runs in the bottom of the third - the first on a wild pitch, the second on a Levine RBI single and the final three on a two-out, three-run triple by VanDreason.
 
The Lakers were threatening for more runs in the bottom of the fourth with runners on second and third and one out. Brady Mazzeo (Averill Park) entered to pitch and got out of the jam with two strikeouts, sandwiched around a hit by pitch. He was nearly unhittable over the next four innings to keep Cortland in the game but took the hard-luck loss after being charged with an unearned run in the ninth. Mazzeo finished with two hits and one walk allowed in five innings with eight strikeouts. He retired 12 straight batters after giving up a leadoff single in the fifth.
 
Cortland got a run back in the fifth on a Nolan Smith (Hamburg) RBI single and tallied four runs in the seventh to cut Oswego's lead to 6-5. That inning featured RBI singles by Smith and Nick Chemotti (Syracuse/West Genesee), a Mitchell Kelly (Webster/Webster Thomas) double, a Luke Schartner (Bayport/Bayport-Blue Point) RBI groundout, and a Connor Lynch (Wappingers Falls/Roy C. Ketcham) RBI double.
 
The Red Dragons tied the game in the eighth when Nick Plue (Guilderland) led off with a double, was bunted to third by Chris Bonacci (Syracuse/West Genesee) and scored on Mat Bruno's (Rye) sac fly to right.
 
Smith finished 4-for-4 with a hit by pitch and two RBI in five plate appearances. Bonacci went 2-for-4 and Chemotti was 2-for-5 with an RBI. Plue, who entered as a pinch hitter in the fifth, ended 1-for-3 with a walk and two runs scored.
 
For Oswego, Hamer ended 3-for-5, Tishawn Featherstone went 2-for-4 and VanDreason drove in four runs. Oswego starter Jonah Shearer allowed four runs on 10 hits over six and a third innings with five strikeouts and two walks. Larry Citrola, the Lakers' second reliever, earned the win. He entered in the top of the eighth with two runners on and two outs and got a fielder's choice to end the threat, and the lone runner he allowed in the ninth was on a one-out, two-base error.