Cortland Standard .net

OSWEGO — Ever since the league did away with having teams in two divisions back in 1997, the SUNY Cortland baseball squad has always hosted the SUNY Athletic Conference tournament as the top overall seed.
That trend will continue this spring after the Red Dragons clinched the regular season pennant by sweeping past second place contender Oswego Tuesday afternoon, turning a triple play defensively to finish off a 3-1 opening seven-inning victory before taking the nine-inning nightcap 5-1 on the Lakers Field diamond.
With an 11th consecutive victory, the nationally No. 1 ranked Red Dragons are 14-1 in conference play, stand 29-2 overall and will host the SUNYAC playoffs May 1-3 at Wallace Field.
Starting pitchers Seth Lamando and Brandon McClain each improved to 4-0 on the season, as Oswego (14-4 SUNYAC, 23-8 overall) was held to just three hits in each game. Lamando went the distance in the opener, while Travis Laitar came on to pitch the final two scoreless innings of the nightcap to earn his third save.
Cortland 3, Oswego 1: Junior Lamando’s three-hitter featured six strikeouts to go along with two walks. He retired the first 11 batters he faced before allowing an Eric Hamilton solo homer in the fourth that cut Cortland’s lead to 3-1.
When Oswego threatened in the bottom of the seventh, Cortland ended the game in dramatic fashion.
Hamilton drew a leadoff walk and Myles Kutscher singled through the right side to start a potential Lakers rally. The next batter then popped up a bunt that Lamando caught. The hurler threw to shortstop Anthony Simon to double up Hamilton. Simon then threw to first baseman Austin Clock to double up Kutscher to end the game.
That was Cortland’s first triple play since the opening game of the 2010 NCAA Division III Regionals against Castleton State.
Cortland took the lead with two runs in the third off Oswego starter Brendyn Karinchak. Sophomore Matthew Michalski led off with a single and went to second on a wild pitch. On an ensuing bunt by Patrick Schetter, Michalski was caught in a rundown between second and third. A throwing error, however, allowed Michalski to reach third and Schetter to go to second.
Freshman catcher Justin Teague followed with an RBI groundout to second. Donny Castaldo was hit by a pitch, and Conrad Ziemendorf brought in a second run with a fielder’s choice force out.
The Red Dragons added a run in the fourth when Simon singled, moved to second on a Clock sac bunt and scored on Mark DeMilio’s single to center.
Karinchak (6-2) held Cortland to four hits but walked four batters and hit one. He struck out five, and only one of the three runs he allowed was earned.
Cortland 5, Oswego 1: McClain gave up three hits and three walks, struck out four, and allowed one run over the opening seven innings. Laitar retired all six batters he faced, three by strikeout.
Cortland took a 1-0 lead in the first off Oswego starter Robert Donnelly (2-1). DeMilio reached on an one-out error, went to second on a groundout and scored on a Simon single.
Oswego tied the game in the fifth when Kyle Simmons stole home on a first-and-third play in which Dan Saccocio got into a rundown but was safe going back to first as Simmons scored. McClain and Laitar, however, combined to retire 13 of the last 14 batters following that play the rest of the way.
The Red Dragons broke the tie with two runs in the seventh. Fabio Ricci and DeMilio started the inning with back-to-back singles, and they moved to second and third on a Ziemendorf groundout to first. Simon then hit a grounder to the shortstop, who looked back the runner at third, but then threw wildly to first to allow both runners to score.
Cortland added two runs in the ninth on RBI singles by Clock and Nick Hart.
Ricci finished 2-for-2 with a walk after entering the game in the third inning. Clock was 2-for-4 and Vinny Bomasuto went 2-for-5. Saccocio was 2-for-4 and John Rauseo was 1-for-2 with a walk to account for Oswego’s three hits.
Cortland wraps its SUNYAC regular-season schedule with a three-game series at Plattsburgh, playing a 3 p.m. single game Friday and a noontime doubleheaer Saturday.
— Outfielder Ziemendorf was named the SUNYAC and ECAC Division III Upstate Player of the Week, while junior pitcher Brandon Serio was the SUNYAC and ECAC Upstate Pitcher of the Week.
In addition, junior Ziemendorf was put on the D3baseball.com National “Team of the Week.” The team consists of the top players for the week, by position, among all Division III schools.
Ziemendorf batted .632 (12-for-19) with two homers, four doubles, a triple, 14 RBI, 13 runs scored, a .741 on-base percentage and 1.263 slugging percentage in a 6-0 week for the Red Dragons. Entering this week’s action, he led the Red Dragons in runs scored (32), RBI (30) and walks (15) and was tied for first in triples (3).
Serio went 2-0 in two SUNYAC starts in wins over Fredonia and Oneonta. He pitched nine and two-third innings allowing three hits, no walks or runs and eight strikeouts. For the season he is 5-0 with a 1.85 ERA and a team-high 27 strikeouts.