CORTLAND, N.Y. – Nationally top-ranked Cortland registered a combined 31 runs and 39 hits as the Red Dragons swept visiting Oneonta, 10-3 and 21-3, in a SUNYAC doubleheader.
Prior to the game, Cortland held a ceremony to honor the late Bob Wallace, who coached the Red Dragons from 1958-82 and for whom Cortland's home field is named. Wallace passed away last December at age 87. A Navy veteran, Wallace was rendered full military honors by the U.S. Navy Reserve from Syracuse, with assistance from the Marine Corps League of Cortland County, the Homer American Legion Post 465, and a bugler from the U.S. Navy Sea Cadets.
Cortland (27-2, 12-1 SUNYAC) is technically a half game behind Oswego (14-2) for first in the SUNYAC standings. The teams are scheduled to play a doubleheader at Oswego Tuesday. If either team sweeps that doubleheader it will clinch the top seed and the right to host the SUNYAC tournament. If the teams split, Cortland would need to win two of three games at Plattsburgh next weekend to earn the top seed.
Game 1: Cortland 10, Oneonta 3
Cortland jumped out to a 6-0 lead in the bottom of the first in the seven-inning contest. Oneonta broke Cortland's streak of 24 consecutive shutout innings, spanning parts or all of four games, when Joshua Quesada hit a three-run homer in the fifth for his first hit of the season.
Brandon Serio (Bedford Hills/Fox Lane) started as part of a predetermined rotation for Cortland and earned the win to improve to 5-0. Entering the game on a 60-pitch limit, Serio threw 59 pitches and allowed two hits and struck out four in three and two thirds scoreless innings. Ryan McAlary (Shoreham/Shoreham-Wading River) pitched the next two and a third innings, allowed three hits and three runs, and Cody Petre (Silver Springs/Letchworth) threw a perfect seventh inning.
Cortland's six-run first featured four unearned runs as Oneonta committed three of its six errors in the frame. Donny Castaldo (Mount Kisco/Fox Lane) led off with a single and scored on Conrad Ziemendorf's (Penfield/Webster Schroeder) RBI double. Vinny Bomasuto (Dunkirk) singled in Ziemendorf, Anthony Simon (Suffern/Don Bosco Prep (NJ)) was hit by a pitch and Austin Clock (Niskayuna) bunted the runners to second and third.
A fielding error allowed two runs to score, and a throwing error on the next ball in play brought in the fifth run of the inning. Two batters later, Justin Teague (Syracuse/Cicero-North Syracuse) lined an RBI single up the middle.
Cortland added two in the second on a Clock sac fly and an Adam Smith (Vestal) RBI double. The Red Dragons' other two runs came on a Ziemendorf hit-by-pitch with the bases loaded in the fifth and a Matt Personius (Binghamton/Chenango Valley) RBI groundout in the sixth.
Teague finished 3-for-4 with an RBI and Bomasuto and Smith were each 2-for-4 with an RBI. Ziemendorf drove in two runs. Kyle Jordan started for Oneonta and gave up four hits and six runs, two earned, in two thirds of an inning. Dan Shelton was solid as Oneonta's second reliever with two hits and one unearned run allowed in three innings.
Game 2: Cortland 21, Oneonta 3
Cortland matched its season-high run total and scored in double figures for the 14th time this spring to complete the sweep. Sixteen different players finished with at least one hit, including six with two or more, as part of a 28-hit attack.
Ziemendorf finished 4-for-5 with a double, three RBI and three runs. Personius was 3-for-3 with a walk and two runs, Mark DeMilio (Valhalla) finished 3-for-4 with a homer, two RBI and two runs, and Patrick Schetter (Beacon) ended 3-for-5 with a walk, two RBI and three runs.
Castaldo went 2-for-4 with two RBI and two runs, Nick Hart (Fredonia) was 2-for-4 with two runs, and Dylan Powers (Moravia) singled twice in two at-bats for his first two collegiate hits.
Mike Cruz was 2-for-4 with a two-run homer and Casy Kies finished 2-for-3 with an RBI single for Oneonta (6-18, 3-10 SUNYAC). All three of Oneonta's runs came in the top of the sixth after Cortland led 12-0.
Zach Ferris (Stephentown/LaSalle Institute) picked up his second win in as many decisions this spring. He gave up five hits and three runs with one walk in six innings. Nick Di Benedetto (Nanuet) tossed two innings of two-hit ball and Adam Brant (Staatsburg/Our Lady of Lourdes) threw a hitless ninth, with only one batter reaching via error. Oneonta's RJ Lyman took the loss after giving up nine run, eight earned, on 13 hits in four and a third innings.
Cortland enjoyed another strong first inning, as in Game 1, with five runs on six hits. The Red Dragons opened with a Castaldo double, a Ziemendorf single and a Bomasuto two-run double. With one out, Clock grounded out to the pitcher, and on the throw to first Bomasuto took off and beat the return throw home. Schetter wrapped up the first-inning scoring three batters later with a two-run single to center.
The game stayed 5-0 until the hosts sent up 12 batters in a seven-run fifth. DeMilio hit a one-out solo homer and, after the next three batters reached, Castaldo hit a two-run single and Ziemendorf followed with a two-run double. Clock and DeMilio added RBI singles later in the frame.
Cortland added four in the sixth on a Ziemendorf RBI single, an error, and two wild pitches. Sean Getman (Oneonta) drove in a run with a groundout and Andrew Ziegenfus (Binghamton/Chenango Forks) doubled home a run during a three-run seventh, and Fabio Ricci (Hawthrone/Westlake) and Getman hit sac flies to plate runs in the eighth.