Cortland Standard .net

SYRACUSE — With five errors leading to five unearned Brockport runs on Monday night, the SUNY Cortland baseball team could not finish off a three-game sweep of the Golden Eagles.
The Red Dragons had a seven-game winning streak halted in a 6-3 loss under the lights at Onondaga Community College, as Wesley Burghardt powered Brockport with a 3-for-4 offensive outing that including a pair of doubles and three RBIs.
It was the first SUNY Athletic Conference loss of the season for the No. 2 nationally-ranked Red Dragons, who are now 5-1 in conference play and 18-2 overall.
This game was originally scheduled for Sunday at Cornell University in Ithaca, only to have snow create a postponement. Cortland had won a pair of one-run games against Brockport this past Friday at Cornell.
Starting pitcher Zack Lander earned the win for Brockport, the Golden Eagles improving to 4-5 in conference play and 11-8 overall. Lander (3-1) allowed six hits and three runs — two earned — in six and a third innings. He walked four and struck out four.
Seve Kowalski threw an inning and two thirds of hitless relief with one walk, and Nick Pontari earned his second save with a scoreless ninth after entering following a leadoff walk.
Alex Weingarten (3-1) started for Cortland and gave up six hits and walked one in five innings. Weingarten struck out five batters, and only one of the six runs he allowed was earned.
Adam Brant did not allow a hit or run in three and a third innings, as the only Brockport batter to reach of the 11 he faced came on an error in the eighth. Turner Parry retired both batters he faced to end the top of the ninth.
Cortland held a slight 7-6 hit edge, as Nick Hart finished 3-for-4 and scored twice while Anthony Simon drove in two runs going 2-for-3 at the plate.
Cortland took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first on a Simon sacrifice fly. Brockport broke through for four runs in the fourth.
Anthony Barbetto singled and took second on an error. With one out, Chris Davis hit a grounder to short, and a wild throw to third allowed Barbetto to score. Burghardt followed with an RBI double, and two batters later John Craig hit an RBI double down the left field line. Luke Gilbert closed the scoring with an run-scoring single to right.
The Golden Eagles added two unearned runs in the fifth. Barbetto reached on a one-out error, and with two outs Davis walked and Burghardt hit a two-run double down the left field line.
Cortland got a run back in the fifth when Hart singled with one out, stole second during a strikeout and scored on Simon’s single to center. The Red Dragons tallied a run in the seventh on an error, a Vinny Bomasuto single, a Simon walk and a Fabio Ricci RBI groundout, but left runners on second and third.
Hart led off with a walk to start the bottom of the ninth. Pontari entered and recorded two flyouts. Ricci then hit a high pop-up that a Brockport infielder lost in the lights for a hit, but Pontari got the next batter to line back to him to end the game.
Cortland left 12 runners on base compared to Brockport’s four.
The Red Dragons are slated to host league leader Oswego today at 3 p.m., the Lakers a perfect 9-0 in conference play. The Red Dragons have also rescheduled their three league games at Fredonia that were postponed March 27-28. The teams will play a doubleheader Sunday and a single game this coming Monday at Fredonia.