Cortland Standard .net

In the final preparation for post-season conference play, first baseman Austin Clock had a big day as the No. 1 nationally-ranked SUNY Cortland baseball team knocked off visiting Cazenovia College 11-2 on Tuesday.
Clock finished 3-for-4 with two doubles, scored twice and drove in a run as the Red Dragons improved to 33-2 with their 15th consecutive victory.
Cortland will next host the four-team, double-elimination SUNY Athletic Conference tournament running Friday through Sunday at Wallace Field. The Red Dragons face Fredonia Friday at noon, followed by Oswego taking on Brockport at 3:30 p.m.
Nick Di Benedetto the first of four Cortland pre-determined pitchers, improved to 3-0 with four and a third innings of four-hit ball. He gave up two runs, one earned, struck out three and walked none. Patrick Healy followed with two innings of one-hit shutout ball with one strikeout. Jason Martin retired all five batters he faced, four by strikeout, and Ryan McAlary allowed one hit and fanned one in the ninth.
Cortland collected 15 base hits as Matthew Michalski went 2-for-3 with a double, while off the bench Patrick Schetter was 2-for-2 and Nick Hart 2-for-3.
Conrad Ziemendorf reached base four times for the Red Dragons despite no official at-bats, drawing three walks and being hit by a pitch.
Dan Crozier hit a leadoff homer in the second to put Cazenovia (10-19) up 1-0. The Wildcats also scored in the sixth on Dan Colburn’s sac fly.
Cortland took the lead with two runs in the bottom of the second. Clock led off with a double and scored with two outs on Adam Smith’s bunt single. Smith eventually stole second, advanced to third on a passed ball and scored on a wild pitch. The Red Dragons added three in the third on a double play grounder, an Anthony Simon RBI single and a Michalski RBI double.
Hart’s RBI single in the fifth extended the lead to 6-1, and an error later in the inning allowed another run to score. Clock doubled home a run in the sixth, and the Red Dragons tacked on three in the eighth on a Keith Andrews run-scoring groundout and RBI singles from Schetter and Hart.