FARMINGDALE, N.Y. – Cortland scored twice in the bottom of the eighth inning and the top-seeded Red Dragons edged second-seeded Ithaca College, 3-2, in an elimination game at the NCAA Division III Regional at Farmingdale State.

The Red Dragons (31-13), ranked 19th nationally by D3baseball.com, will play Friday at 7 p.m. versus Farmingdale. Ithaca, ranked 20th nationally, finishes the season with a 29-10 record.

Sophomore Travis Ratliff (Levittown/Division Avenue) pitched eight and a third innings for his third win in four decisions this spring. He allowed two runs on eight hits, walked one and struck out five. Junior George Jweid (New Hartford) entered with a runner on and one out in the ninth. He gave up a hit, but got the next two batters to ground out back to him for his third save of the season.

Tom Fishback started for Ithaca and allowed three runs, two earned, over seven and two-third innings. He struck out four and walked two.

Cortland started its winning rally with a Mike Avery (Cortland) leadoff infield single. Jason Simone (Utica/Thomas R. Proctor) apparently bunted Avery to second, but Simone was called for stepping on home plate and Avery had to return to first. Kevin Jackson (Wappingers Falls/Roy C. Ketcham) then hit into a fielder's choice, with Avery forced a second, for the second out.

Junior Steve Nickel (Lake Ronkonkoma/Sachem North), however, kept the rally alive with a single to right center that moved Jackson to third. A Fishback wild pitch allowed Jackson to score the tying run, with Nickel going all the way to third, and sophomore Alex Coffey's (Hilton) push bunt single drove in Nickel with the go-ahead run.

Ithaca took a 1-0 lead in the fourth when David Ahonen singled with one out and scored on a Alan Kartholl two-out double to left center. Cortland knotted the game with two outs in the sixth on a Jackson single and a Nickel RBI triple to left center.

Ithaca re-gained the lead in the seventh when Trevor Wolf hit a solo homer to right with one out. Rob Zappia and Wolf hit the singles during Ithaca's ninth-inning rally and moved to second and third on the first groundout before being stranded.

Nickel, Coffey, Avery and Andrew Pezzuto (Hastings) each finished 2-for-4 for Cortland. Wolf went 2-for-3 and Ahonen finished 2-for-4 for Ithaca.


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