Cortland Standard .net

ROCHESTER — A late-inning revival saved the day for a SUNY Cortland baseball team currently ranked No. 2 in the nation.
The visiting Red Dragons came up with three-run rallies in both the top of the eighth and ninth innings to overtake the University of Rochester and secure a wild 15-11 victory in Wednesday evening’s non-conference clash at Towers Field.
Vinny Bomasuto drove in five runs with a 3-for-4 bat, tripling and scoring three times as Cortland improved to 15-1 with a fourth straight victory.
Anthony Simon and Donny Castaldo were each a home run shy of hitting for the cycle for the Red Dragons. Simon was 3-for-6 with a triple and a double while collecting three RBIs, while Castaldo was 4-for-5 with a triple, double and five runs scored.
Conrad Zimendorf was also productive in an 18-hit Cortland attack, driving in three runs with some 2-for-3 bat work.
Rochester (4-6) collected a dozen hits in defeat. That included two-out, three-run homer off the bat of Sam Slutsky that cleared the fence in left-center field and put the Yellowjackets ahead 11-9 in the bottom of the seventh inning.
Cortland’s comeback started when Bomasuto tripled home two runs in the eighth, then scored when Simon followed with a double down the right field line to give the Red Dragons the lead. In the ninth, Ziemendorf doubled in two with the bases loaded and Bomasuto followed with an RBI single.
The mound win went to Adam Brant, the fifth Cortland pitcher used by Coach Joe Brown. He relieved Ryan McAlary after the Slutsky home run in the seventh.
In two and a third innings, Brant gave up one hit and struck out one. He gave up a leadoff single to Will Conroy in the eighth, with Cortland up 12-11, then promptly picked him off. With two down in the bottom of the ninth, Brendan Garry reached on an error before Brant got pinch-hitter Matt Todd to fly out to left.
Zach Ferris also turned in a solid outing on the mound in middle relief for the Red Dragons. He entered in the first after Rochester scored five runs and gave up three hits, no walks and one run with three strikeouts over four and two-thirds innings.
Garry was 2-for-4 with three RBIs for Rochester, while Dan Watten was 3-for-4 with two RBIs. The Yellowjackets had seven extra-base hits among their 12 total hits.
Garry’s two-run triple and a Slutsky run-producing double were featured in Rochester’s five-run opening inning.
Cortland answered with five runs in the third. Cortland High grad Connor Griffin tripled in a run and scored on a Connor Manderson single. Ziemendorf hit a sac fly two batters later, with a wild pitch and a Patrick Schetter fielder’s choice accounting for the other runs.
Griffin finished 2-for-5 with an RBI and scored twice.
In the fourth, Bomasuto singled home a run to put Cortland up 6-5 and Simon tripled to center for an 8-5 lead. Bomasuto also plated a run with a sac fly in the top of the sixth.
Down 9-6, Rochester scored twice in the sixth started by a Slutsky triple and then took an 11-9 lead on Slutsky’s homer in the next frame — the Yellowjackets final run.
Cortland is scheduled to play a three-game SUNY Athletic Conference series at Fredonia Friday and Saturday, with a single 3 p.m. game Friday at 3 p.m. and a doubleheader Saturday at noon. The location of that series, however, will likely be moved due to weather and field conditions.