Cortland Standard .net

SYRACUSE — Despite a pair of first-game rain delays, the Cortland Crush and Syracuse Salt Cats got a New York Collegiate Baseball League doubleheader in Wednesday at Onondaga CC.
The Salt Cats were the main beneficiaries, winning both games by the same 5-2 score to improve to 6-2 atop the league’s Eastern Division.
The Crush has now lost four straight and is 1-6 on the season, tied for fifth in the sixth-team Eastern Division.
The Salt Cats were the visitors in the first game, a makeup of Tuesday’s rainout in Cortland. They got all the runs they’d need in the top of the second on RBI triples by first baseman-rightfielder Cameron Dias and leftfielder-centerfielder Brandon Cornelius, sandwiched around a run-scoring single by Julian Bilodeau. It was the first time this season that Cortland failed to score the first run of the game.
After a rain delay following the top of the second, Syracuse added a run in the third as designated hitter Manny Colon walked with one out and later scored on a wild pitch. The second rain delay came after the top of the third.
The Crush got on the scoreboard in the fifth. Leftfielder Julian Gallup reached on a fielder’s choice as third baseman Henry Pellicciotti, who had led off with a walk, was forced at second. A single by centerfielder Grant Hoover and subsequent double steal put men on second and third before rightfielder Jose Arebalo walked to load the bases. A sacrifice fly to right by catcher Chris Matttison scored Gallup before Hoover was caught stealing third to end the inning.
Each team scored once in the seventh to account for the final score. Colon singled home Cornelius, who had led off with a single, for the Salt Cats in the top of the inning. Hoover singled with one out in the bottom of the frame and Mattison singled with two out before Homer Central graduate Zephan Kash’s single to right scored Hoover.
Hoover went 3-for-5 and scored a run for the Crush, and Cornelius went 2-for-3 with a triple, RBI and run for the winners.
Salt Cats starter Charles Davis got the mound victory, allowing two hits and an unearned run in five innings with four strikeouts. Matthew Colon pitched the ninth, allowing one hit and fanning one batter, to earn the save. The loss went to Crush starter T.J. Peterson (0-2), who allowed three hits and four unearned runs in three innings with three strikeouts.
— The Crush were the visitors in the regularly-scheduled second game and opened the scoring in the top of the second. Shortstop Matt Alberino led off with a single, went to second on a wild pitch, took third on a single by centerfielder Luke Gilbert and scored on another wild pitch.
The Salt Cats took the led with single runs in the second, third and sixth. Centerfielder Johnny Knight IV reached on an error to lead off the second and eventually scored on a groundout. Manny Colon, again the designated hitter, was hit by a pitch with two outs in the third, went to third on a double by Knight and scored on a scored on a single by shortstop Lucas Tevlin. Third baseman Adam Thoryk singled with two outs in the sixth and later came home on a wild pitch.
Cortland scored once in the seventh to make it a one-run game. Catcher George Haaland singled to lead things off, with Julian Gallup coming on to pinch-run before Alberino walked. Gilbert then singled to load the bases before Kash drew a bases-loaded walk to plate Gallup.
That left the bases loaded with no outs, but an unassisted double play by Dias on a popup bunt and a strikeout ended the inning.
The Salt Cats closed out the scoring in the bottom of the seventh on Tevlin’s two-run single.
Gilbert went 2-for-4 for Cortland while Tevlin (three RBIs) and Knight (two doubles) both went 2-for-4 and second baseman Tim Hunter went 2-for-5. Salt Cats starter Cory Vogeli got the win, giving up three hits and an unearned run with five strikeouts in five innings, and reliever Kyle Taylor got the save.
Shaelim Edwards started for the Crush and got the loss in his first decision of the season, allowing six hits and three runs, two of them earned, in 5 2-3 innings with four strikeouts.
THE CRUSH HOST the Salt Cats today on Greg’s Field in a 6 p.m. start and will then host Oneonta Friday at 6 p.m. and Sherrill on Saturday, with the first pitch slated for 3 p.m.
Saturday will be the Crush’s Veterans Recognition Day, with a pre-game picnic for veterans scheduled for 1 p.m. at Beaudry Park and an honor guard and flag salute just before the start of the game, at 2:45 p.m. The activities are sponsored by Cortland Elks Lodge 748.