AUBURNDALE, FLA. –
Mark Palumbo (Morristown, NJ) and
Steve Komanecky (Auburn) combined on a five-hit shutout as nationally eighth-ranked Cortland defeated 11th-ranked Wheaton College (Mass.), 7-0, to hand the Lyons their first loss of the season. Cortland improved to 9-2 with its fourth straight win. Wheaton is now 6-1.
Palumbo allowed three hits and no walks and struck out three for his first win of the season. Komanecky tossed the final three frames and gave up two hits and a walk. He fanned two and earned his second save of the spring.
Tim Panetta (Mount Kisco/Fox Lane) finished 2-for-4 with four RBI. He hit a three-run triple in the second to put the Red Dragons ahead and had an RBI single during a four-run ninth.
Alec Palioca started for Wheaton and gave up three hits and two walks in seven innings. He struck out five and allowed three runs. Matt Lavanchy finished 1-for-3 with a walk.
Cortland's three-run second opened with
Anthony Iacomini (South Salem/John Jay-Cross River) being hit by a pitch.
Max Rosing (Rockville Centre/South Side) singled and
Mark DeMilio (Valhalla) bunted the runners to second and third.
Donny Castaldo (Mount Kisco/Fox Lane) walked with two outs to keep the inning alive and Panetta cleared the bases with his three-run double to right center.
The Red Dragons' four-run ninth featured a Panetta RBI single, a pinch-hit RBI double by
Michael DeCarr (Syracuse/Westhill) and run-scoring singles by
Vinny Bomasuto (Dunkirk) and Iacomini.
Wheaton had a leadoff double by Mike Bisceglia go by the boards in the fifth after Palumbo retired the next three hitters. In the ninth, the Lyons had runners on first and third with one out via a Lavanchy walk and an Apolinar De La Cruz single, but Komanecky preserved Cortland's third shutout in four games by inducing a pair of groundouts.
Cortland will face third-ranked and 2013 national runner-up Southern Maine Friday at 4 p.m. in Auburndale. The Red Dragons will close their Florida trip Saturday at 10 a.m. against Clarkson in Leesburg, then travel to Winchester, Va., on Sunday for a 2 p.m. game against Shenandoah.
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