Alex Weingarten (East Rockaway/Lynbrook) threw a five-hit shutout as Cortland defeated DePauw, 9-0, to stay alive at the NCAA Mideast Regional The Red Dragons (36-8) will face Keystone in an elimination game Sunday at 1 p.m., with the winner needing to defeat Washington & Jefferson twice to win the regional.
Weingarten improved his season record to 7-1 with the win. He struck out six and walked just one. During one stretch, Weingarten retired 16 straight batters – the final two hitters in the third through the first two batters in the eighth.
Weingarten pitched out of early jams in the second and third innings. In the second with two outs, DePauw got runners to second and third on a Tate Stewart walk, a Noah Salasky single, and a Salasky steal of second. Max Cohen followed with a line drive to left center, but centerfielder Paul Dondero (East Islip) made a nice catch in the gap to end the inning. In the third, the Tigers again had runners on second and third, this time with one out, but Weingarten fanned Mike Hammel and Jack Thompson – the number three and four batters in the lineup – to end the threat.
Cortland scored in the top of the third when Colin BeVard (Syracuse/West Genesee) led off with a double, moved to third on a groundout and scored on Tyler Phillips' (Hancock) sac fly. The Red Dragons scored four in the fourth, all with two outs, to extend the lead to 5-0. Patrick Schetter (Beacon) doubled and Dondero beat out a chopper to third. Marcos Perivolaris (Mattituck) was hit by a pitch to load the bases and BeVard walked to force in a run. Steven Figueroa (Bronx/St. Raymond's) followed with a ground-rule double to right center to drive in two, and an error on a ball hit by Phillips brought home the last run.
The Red Dragons tacked on three more runs in the sixth on RBI singles from BeVard and Phillips and a Justin Teague (North Syracuse/Cicero-North Syracuse) RBI double. Cortland closed the scoring in the eighth on a Phillips single to center for his third RBI of the game.
Schetter finished 4-for-5 with a double and a run score and Phillips went 3-for-4 with sac fly, a run and three RBI to account for seven of Cortland's 15 hits. BeVard went 2-for-4 with a walk, two RBI and three runs, and Figueroa was 2-for-5 with a double, two RBI and a run.
Reid Pittard finished 2-for-4 for DePauw (33-13), which defeated Cortland to open the regional Thursday night. Starter Nick Horvath, normally a reliever for the Tigers, allowed six hits and five runs, four earned, in three and two thirds innings. He struck out three and walked two.