AUBURNDALE, FLA. – Junior Kris Gentzke (Clarence Center/Clarence) went 3-for-4 with a homer and three RBI and junior Jason Simone (Utica/Thomas R. Proctor) finished 3-for-5 with an RBI and three stolen bases as 19th-ranked Cortland edged 20th-ranked Wheaton College of Massachusetts, 6-5, in a non-league matchup of top-20 Division III teams.

Cortland (7-3) led 6-2 entering the bottom of the ninth, but the Lyons rallied for three runs and left the tying run on base. Cortland senior Ed Southworth (Cortland) entered with runners on first and third and one out with the score 6-4. He got the first batter to fly out, which scored a run, then induced a grounder to short for a game-ending fielder's choice and his second save of the season.

Senior Adam Brown (Rochester/Greece Athena) earned the victory with five and one-third innings of six-hit ball. He struck out three, walked three and gave up two runs, one earned.

Tad Skelley was 3-for-3 with a walk and two runs scored and Sean Buckley finished 2-for-5 with three RBI to lead the Lyons (2-1). Kevin Calabro suffered the loss after allowing seven hits and four runs, three earned, in five innings. He struck out three and walked three.

Cortland took a 1-0 lead in the top of the third. Freshman Matt Wild (Auburn) walked with one out and stole second. Gentzke singled to left, and an error on the play allowed Wild to score. In the fifth, Wild walked with two outs and Gentzke homered to left to give the Red Dragons a 3-0 lead.

A Buckley RBI single drew Wheaton within 3-1 in the bottom of the fifth. The teams then traded runs in the sixth. Simone led off with a single, stole second and eventually moved to third on a groundout. John Zilnicki's (Riverhead) pinch-hit, two-out single drove in the run. Dan Haugh doubled to lead off Wheaton's sixth and took third on a wild pitch. Sean Ryan walked and stole second, and a wild throw on the play allowed Haugh to score.

In the seventh, Wild led off with a walk, then went to third on a bad pickoff throw. Gentzke drove in Wild with a sacrifice fly to center. Cortland also scored in the ninth on a Simone two-out RBI single.

Wheaton loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom of the ninth on singles by Eric Laliberte and Skelley and a Hal Landers walk. Buckley followed with a two-run single up the middle off reliever Tyler Forger (Clayton/Thousand Islands), but Forger was able to get the next batter to line out to right with no runner advancement from second or third base. Haugh's sacrifice fly to center off Southworth cut Cortland's lead to one before the fielder's choice grounder ended the game.

Box Score