CORTLAND, N.Y. – A pair of four-run innings in the middle frames powered 21st ranked SUNY Cortland to a 9-2 victory over the Washington & Jefferson baseball team in 2024 NCAA Regional action at Robert H. Wallace '53 Field in Cortland, N.Y. 

The loss drops the Presidents to 32-13 overall. The Red Dragons improve to 31-12-1. 
 
Cortland will play Salve Regina tomorrow at 12 p.m. The top-seeded Seahawks topped Colby College by a 10-5 score to open play on Friday. The Mules will take on the Presidents in an elimination game with a scheduled start at 8:30 a.m. 
 
Both teams went scoreless in the first inning. W&J was able to get a one-hit single from junior outfielder Drew Garth (Glenshaw, Pa./North Hills) but were unable to push anything across. Cortland put a runner on base with a two-out walk but W&J sophomore starter Anthony Pass (Clinton, Pa./West Allegheny) induced a pair of ground outs and a swinging strikeout to end the inning.
 
After a scoreless second inning, W&J opened the scoring with a pair of runs in the third inning. Freshman infielder Brendan Cruz (Carnegie, Pa./Chartiers Valley) drew a leadoff walk before moving to second on a sac bunt by sophomore infielder Ben Schuler (McDonald, Pa./South Fayette). 
 
Junior shortstop Jacob LaDuca then moved Cruz to third with a sharply hit single to left field. Cortland appeared as if they might escape the damage after recording a strikeout for the second out. However, a wild pitch allowed Cruz to scamper home for the game's first home. Lutz then stroked a two-out RBI single to left to score LaDuca, who used a nifty slide to elude the tag of Cortland catcher Zach Kringdon. 
 
Both teams went down in order in the fourth inning as W&J took a 2-0 lead into the fifth. 
 
W&J put a pair of runners on base in the top of the fifth. LaDuca drew a walk and moved to third on a single by Garth. Lutz made solid contact to left field, but the ball was knocked down by the wind and caught by the Cortland left fielder to end the threat. 
 
Cortland then saw its offense come alive in the bottom half of the inning. Six straight Red Dragons reached base as they pushed four runs across in the inning to take a 4-2 lead. A three-run triple by Chris Bonacci highlighted the inning for Cortland. 
 
The Red Dragons put up four more runs in the bottom of the sixth inning. Cortland used a two-run home run by grad student Mat Bruno to extend the lead to 8-2. The Red Dragons tacked on an unearned run in the seventh inning. 
 
W&J offensively had its work cut out for them, as they faced off with SUNYAC Pitcher of the Year Luis Misla. The lefty neutralized W&J's left-handed power bats and racked up 11 strikeouts. Misla has 114 strikeouts this season, which gives him the single-season program record. 

Garth finished with a pair of hits. LaDuca reached base three times including drawing a pair of walks.

Pass suffered the loss for the Red & Black. He worked 5.1 innings and struck out two. Brandon Bastian (Barto, Pa./The Hill School) and Max Stanger (Buffalo, N.Y. St. Joseph Collegiate) each turned in an inning of work at the end of the game to limit the damage being done by Cortland. Bastian allowed only one run on no hits and Stanger didn't allow any runs or hits and tallied a strikeout to end the eighth. 

Notes: Friday's game marked just the third matchup all time between W&J and SUNY Cortland. The two teams split a pair of games in the 2017 NCAA Division III Mideast Regional. Cortland is appearing in its 32nd straight NCAA Tournament.