ASHLAND, VA. – Jack Massa (Shoreham/Shoreham-Wading River) hit a pinch-hit grand slam as part of a five-run fourth inning to give Cortland the lead for good and the nationally top-ranked Red Dragons defeated 10th-ranked Randolph-Macon College, 11-6, in non-league baseball action.
Cortland improved to 4-1 with the victory, while the Yellowjackets dropped to 6-2.
Massa and Matthew Personius (Binghamton/Chenango Valley) each finished 2-for-4 with a homer for the Red Dragons. Justin Teague (North Syracuse/Cicero-North Syracuse) was 2-for-4 with a walk and Steven Figueroa (Bronx/St. Raymond's) went 2-for-5 with an RBI as part of Cortland's 11-hit attack.
Payten Boice (Homer) relieved starter Patrick Merryweather (Baldwinsville/C.W. Baker) to start the bottom of the second and pitched three scoreless innings for the win. Boice allowed just one hit and two walks and struck out one. Four relievers followed, with Ryan Smith (Hancock) the most impressive. Smith gave up just one hit and one unearned run with one strikeout in three and a third innings.
Starter Matthew Nickles took the loss for Randolph-Macon. He was charged with five runs, three earned, on four hits and two walks in four innings. He fanned five batters. The Yellowjackets also finished with 11 hits, including two each by Jeff Butler, Rick Spiers, Cole Migliorini and Stuart Brown.
Randolph-Macon took a 2-0 lead on five hits in the bottom of the first. Butler doubled with one out, followed by a Spiers RBI double and Migliorini RBI single. The Yellowjackets, however, left the bases loaded in the frame.
Cortland was blanked for the first three innings before breaking through in the fourth. The Red Dragons loaded the bases with one out on a Dondero walk, a fielder's choice, an error, and a Teague walk. Massa entered to pinch hit and hit his second homer in as many days – a blast over the left field fence for Cortland's first grand slam since current assistant coach Austin Clock hit one versus Eastern Connecticut State in Florida in March 2015. The Red Dragons added another run in the inning when Personius reached on a bunt single, stole second, moved to third on a groundout and scored on a Casey Komanecky (Auburn) single to center.
The Red Dragons added two runs in the fifth on a Patrick Schetter (Beacon) RBI single and a Personius sac fly. Randolph-Macon answered with three in the bottom of the inning to cut Cortland's lead to 9-5. Brown singled home the first run, followed by a Ian Pape RBI triple. Pape scored on a wild pitch.
Cortland tallied two runs in the sixth – one on a Matt Michalski (Buffalo/St. Francis) RBI infield single and the other on an error – and added a run in the seventh on a Figueroa RBI single. The hosts scored their final run in the eighth on a sac fly by Zach Evans, and Cortland closed the scoring in the top of the ninth on a Personius solo homer to right.
Cortland will travel to Baltimore next weekend for three games. The Red Dragons will face host Johns Hopkins along with Frostburg State Saturday at 11 a.m. and 2:30 p.m., respectively, and will remain at Hopkins Sunday to face Scranton at 11 a.m.