GREENSBORO, N.C. – The Cortland baseball team, ranked 15th nationally by D3baseball.com and 19th by the ABCA, split two games versus nationally ranked teams to complete play at the D3 Showcase tournament at First National Bank Field. The Red Dragons beat Christopher Newport (11th D3, 14th ABCA), 7-1, and lost to Denison (5th D3/4th ABCA), 14-11.
 
Cortland finished its season-opening weekend with a 2-2 record. The Red Dragons will play next weekend at the Shenandoah University Mr. V. Memorial Classic, facing Immaculata on Saturday and both Wittenberg and the host Hornets on Sunday.
 
Cortland 7, Christopher Newport 1
 
Nick Jessen (Syracuse/West Genesee) went six innings for the win, allowing only three hits and one run with two walks and two strikeouts. Nick Hanson (Ladera Ranch, CA/Aliso Niguel) shut down the Captains for the next two and a third innings, allowing no hits or walks and striking out six. The only runners to reach versus Hanson came via two hit batsmen and an error. Talon Elkins (Syracuse/West Genesee) retired the final two batters, one by strikeout.
 
Dylan Tierney (East Greenbush/Columbia) went 1-for-3 with his first career homer along with a walk and three RBI. Adam Mieczkowski (Vestal) finished 1-for-2 with a double, walk, hit by pitch and two RBI and Luke Schartner (Bayport/Bayport-Blue Point) was 1-for-2 with a double, three walks and three runs scored.
 
Josh Reinhold went 2-for-3 to account for two of the three hits for CNU (4-3). Starter Jackson Baird took the loss after allowing five runs, three earned, on two hits with six walks and seven strikeouts in four and a third innings.
 
The Captains took the lead in the bottom of the first on an Aaron Maxie RBI fielder's choice grounder. Cortland got on the board with three runs in the fourth on a Mieczkowski RBI double and Tierney's two-run homer.
 
The Red Dragons added two in the fifth on an error and a first-and-third play with Nolan Smith (Hamburg) getting into a rundown to allow Chris Bonacci (Syracuse/West Genesee) to score from third. Cortland's final two runs came in the seventh when Mieczkowski was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded and Tierney hit a sacrifice fly.
 
Denison 14, Cortland 11
 
Cortland's second game of the day last four hours and two minutes and featured a combined 25 hits and 23 walks. The Red Dragons scored seven times in the top of the second to take a 7-1 lead, but Denison worked its way back and put up seven runs of its own in the bottom of the fifth to go up 13-10.

The Big Red added a run in the sixth to extend the lead to 14-10. Cortland loaded the bases in both the eighth and ninth innings but only notched one run over that span on a Tierney RBI groundout in the ninth.
 
Cortland finished the game offensively with 10 hits and 10 walks. Tierney went 3-for-4 with a double, two walks and four RBI and Lucas Granger (Horseheads) was 3-for-6 with an RBI. Smith was 2-for-6 with two RBI and Marc Stockhausen (Bronx/St. Raymond) ended 1-for-3 with a double, walk and two runs.
 
Cortland used seven pitchers in the contest. Tyler Blake (Cortland) started and allowed four runs, three earned, in one-plus innings. Warren Miller (Plattsburgh) took the loss as he was charged with Denison's go-ahead run in the fifth. Will McCarthy (Farmingdale) allowed one run on three hits with two walks and two and two thirds innings and Eli Stowe (Poughkeepsie/Millbrook) tossed a hitless and scoreless ninth with two walks.
 
Denison (2-0) posted 15 hits and 13 walks. Six players had multiple hits, led by Jack Steel going 3-for-5 with a double, walk, two RBI and three runs. Max Fishbein and Jake Blozy each finished 2-for-4 with a walk and an RBI and Andrew Fazio was 2-for-3 with three walks, two RBI and three runs. Eric Colaco finished 2-for-5 with two RBI, Erik Sundgren was 2-for-6 with a homer to lead off the bottom of the first along with a walk and three RBI, and Cade Nowik went 1-for-3 with two walks and two RBI.
 
Eron Vega, Denison's second reliever, earned the win. He gave up one hit and no runs with three strikeouts and two walks in two and two thirds innings. Jack Rollow picked up the save. He entered in the bottom of the eighth and induced a flyout with the bases loaded to end the inning, and he allowed a run on two hits in the ninth before striking out the batter representing the potential tying run to end the game.