ROCKY MOUNT, N.C. – Senior Donny Castaldo (Mount Kisco/Fox Lane), junior Seth Lamando (Hopewell Junction/Roy C. Ketcham) and freshman Justin Teague (Syracuse/Cicero-Syracuse) combined for eight hits and nine RBI as nationally third-ranked Cortland improved to 5-0 with a 12-4 victory at North Carolina Wesleyan University.

Lamando finished 2-for-4 with four RBI, three of which came on a three-run homer during a four-run top of the first inning. Castaldo went 3-for-4 with a double and three RBI and Teague finished 3-for-4 with a double and two RBI.

Also for the Red Dragons, senior Anthony Simon (Suffern/Don Bosco Prep (NJ)) was 2-for-4 with a double and two runs scored and junior Conrad Ziemendorf (Penfield/Webster Schroeder) was 2-for-5 with an RBI. Cortland finished with 16 hits and played errorless ball in the field.

The Battling Bishops (3-14) were led by Kaelan Jacobs, who drove in two runs, and Justin DiSanto, who walked three times and scored twice.

Junior Nick Di Benedetto (Nanuet), the first of six Cortland pitchers in a predetermined rotation, earned his second victory of the season. He allowed two hits, two walks and one run and struck out four in three innings. Senior Ryan McAlary (Shoreham/Shoreham-Wading River) and sophomore Evan Honce (East Patchogue/Bellport) each threw two hitless, scoreless innings of relief with only one walk apiece.

Richard Harrell started for N.C. Wesleyan and allowed seven runs on nine hits over four innings. He walked three and struck out one.

Lamando's three-run homer and Castaldo's RBI single staked Cortland to its early 4-0 lead. The hosts got a run back in the bottom of the frame on a Jacobs fielder's choice, but the Red Dragons tallied two runs in the third on a Clock single, a Simon one-out double and a Castaldo two-run double. Lamando singled home a run in the fourth to extend the lead to 7-1.

N.C. Wesleyan scored on back-to-back RBI groundouts in the fourth. The teams then traded runs in the fifth – Cortland's coming on a Teague RBI double and N.C. Wesleyan's on a Jacobs sacrifice fly. The Red Dragons scored three in the seventh on RBI singles from Teague, Ziemendorf and senior Vinny Bomasuto (Fredonia) to take an 11-4 lead and finished the scoring with an unearned run in the ninth.

Cortland begins its 10-game Florida schedule on Saturday with games versus Marietta at 12:30 p.m. and Salem State at 5 p.m. at the North Charlotte Regional Park in Port Charlotte.

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