ROCKY MOUNT, N.C. – Junior Travis Ratliff (Levittown/Division Avenue), junior Scott Hartling (Pleasant Valley/Arlington) and senior Ed Southworth (Cortland) combined on a three-hit shutout as nationally 17th-ranked Cortland opened the season with a 7-0 victory at North Carolina Wesleyan College.

The game is the first of three the Red Dragons will play during the weekend at N.C. Wesleyan's Coldwell Banker Tournament of Champions. Cortland will face Emory University of Georgia Saturday at 11 a.m. and will have a rematch with the host Battling Bishops Sunday at 11 a.m.

Ratliff allowed only one hit, struck out six and walked four in three and one-third innings. He was awarded the victory despite pitching less than five innings since it was predetermined by Cortland's coaching staff that at least three Red Dragons would pitch in the game. Ratliff was pulled after striking out the leadoff batter in the bottom of the third and remained the pitcher of record the rest of the contest.

Hartling threw four and two-third innings of two-hit ball. He fanned three batters and walked two. Southworth struck out two and walked one in a hitless ninth.

Four Red Dragons – senior Adam Dimino (Honeoye Falls/Honeoye Falls-Lima), senior Steve Nickel (Lake Ronkonkoma/Sachem North), senior Damon Arnold (Wellsville) and sophomore Matt June (Colonie) – each finished 2-for-4 to lead a 13-hit attack. Dimino, Arnold and June also reached via walk in addition to their two hits.

Kaleb Wessell suffered the loss for N.C. Wesleyan (0-2). He gave up six hits and three walks, struck out six and allowed three runs in five and a third innings. Daniel Moore was 1-for-2 and Zach Alexander reached base three times by walk.

Cortland took the lead in the second when Nickel singled, went to second on a groundout and scored on an Arnold RBI double. In the third, Dimino walked with two outs, advanced to third on an error and scored on a Jason Simone (Utica/Thomas R. Proctor) RBI single.

The lead grew to 3-0 in the fourth when Arnold walked and eventually scored from third on a wild pitch. June drove in a run in the eighth with a two-out RBI single and Cortland added three in the ninth on RBI doubles by Andersen Gardner (Fairport) and Alex Coffey (Hilton) and a run-scoring single by Shawn Bailey (Webster/Webster Schroeder).

N.C. Wesleyan's best scoring threat came in the third inning. Andrew Webb and Zach Moore each walked to start the inning and were moved to second and third on a Moore sacrifice bunt. Another walk loaded the bases, but Ratliff escaped by getting the next batter to pop up to second, followed by a strikeout of the clean-up hitter. The Battling Bishops also stranded runners on first and third in the eighth.

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