Cortland Standard .net

GENEVA — Coming up with a pair of narrow road victories over the Geneva Red Wings on Sunday has propelled the streaking Cortland Crush into second place in the New York Collegiate Baseball League Eastern Division standings.
The Crush continued their recent stretch of success with 4-3 and 6-4 wins in a pair of seven-inning contests at McDonough Park, improving to 16-12 with that sweep. Now winners of five straight games — and having won seven of its last 10 outings — Cortland is still chasing after the first place Syracuse Salt Cats, who are 18-10 following the July 4th holiday weekend.
The Red Wings fell to 15-12 and are a half-game behind the Crush in the Eastern Division standings.
“I was with this team last year and it is a totally different team this year,” said Cortland shortstop Hank Pellicciotti, the junior at the University of Binghamton who calls Johnson City home contributing a clutch three-run double to the second game victory. “We’re all here to play ball and win. Each of us keeps doing their part to ride up in the standings.”
Cortland never trailed on the day, building a 4-0 lead through the opening four frames in the opener and grabbing a 6-1 advantage through six innings in the nightcap. The Red Wings made things interesting by scoring three runs in the bottom of the sixth in the opener and crossing the plate three times in the bottom of the seventh in game two before the Crush could complete the sweep.
Cortland out-hit Geneva 9-8 in the first game, as catcher George Haaland was 3-for-3 while Zephan Kash finished 2-for-2 with a solo home run. The Crush held a 10-4 hit advantage in the ensuing contest, with Pellicciotti providing the big hit to support another solid mound performance by starting pitcher T.J. Peterson.
“Coming out here against the team one spot ahead of us and getting two wins on the road was the plan,” said Peterson after the sweep. “We’re in a good position for tomorrow’s two games against Geneva again at home.”
Saturday’s scheduled Crush hosting of the Geneva Twins was postponed, which makes this afternoon’s match-up at Greg’s Field a 4 p.m. doubleheader to finish off a four-game set between the two sides. The Crush are slated to play at the Syracuse Junior Chiefs on Tuesday night, a 7 p.m. first pitch at Onondaga Community College.
Cortland 4, Geneva Red Wings 3: Current Mansfield slugger and former Homer Central all-star Kash extended his hitting streak to seven straight contests by opening the bottom of the second with a solo home run.
Kash now has four home runs on the season, sharing the NYCBL lead in that category.
Cortland added another run in the second on consecutive singles by Matt Alberino, Sean Getman and Haaland and an RBI ground-out by Y.B. Hughes.
Starting pitcher Cody Barnes blanked the Red Wings over the opening three innings before being lifted for Matt Yonta, who was given a 4-0 lead to work with when the Crush crossed the plate twice in the top of the fourth.
Kash started that rally with a walk before Alberino, Getman and Haaland repeated their consecutive single binge. Haaland drove home Kash with his base hit, while another Hughes grounder picked up another RBI.
“Hitting is contagious,’ said Getman, a current SUNY Cortland infielder out of Oneonta. “If one guy starts hitting we all seem to hit. We back each other up and that’s the best part of this game.”
The Red Wings had only four hits before striking for three runs in the bottom of the sixth, Matt Eastman with an RBI double and A.J. Compton a run-scoring single in that rally. The Red Wings also got their leadoff man aboard to open the bottom of the seventh, but reliever Tyler Saundry retired the next three hitters — all in the heart of the Red Wings batting order — to earn his fifth save of the season.
While Haaland had a perfect day at the plate, Alberino and Getman were both 2-for-3 to make up for the top of the batting order going 0-for-10.
Cortland 6, Geneva Red Wings 4: Peterson took a 6-1 lead into the seventh inning, only to have a Harry Roberson double and Zachy Wingate RBI single end his outing. The only other run scored off Peterson was a solo home run by Jackson Rhodes leading off the Geneva fourth.
A left-hander from Florida, Peterson allowed only three hits and struck out four batters while improving his mound mark to 4-2.
After Peterson exited, Crush reliever Joseph Jones gave up a two-run homer off the bat of Mason Schoettlin before a game-ending strikeout halted the Red Wings comeback hopes.
This game was scoreless until the fourth, when Geneva errors set the stage for Pelliciotti’s three-run double to left-center. Alex Loberger singled and scored a fifth inning run on a German sacrifice fly to put the Crush up 4-1 in the fifth inning, and the visitors added two more runs in the sixth inning as Grant Hoover and Loberger produced RBI singles.
Loberger finished 2-for three at the plate, while leadoff man Hoover, clean-up hitter Haaland and Pellicciotti were all 2-for-4. Kash had hit hitting streak snapped, finishing 0-for-4.
“It was a good team win today,” said Haaland after his 5-for-7 afternoon. “The pitchers did well, TJ (Peterson) and Cody (Barnes) did good jobs, even though Cody was a little bit off today. The bullpen did their job again like they have all year.”