PUNTA GORDA, FLA. and PORT CHARLOTTE, FLA. – The nationally third-ranked Cortland baseball team opened its 10-game Florida schedule with wins over 16th-ranked Marietta, 14-12, and Salem State, 21-6. The Red Dragons registered a combined 41 hits in the two games and improved to 7-0 on the season.
 
Cortland will face Endicott College in a doubleheader of two seven-inning games Sunday at 3 p.m. at the Lake Myrtle Sports Complex in Auburndale.
 
Cortland 14, Marietta 12 (Box Score)
 
Cortland took a 10-0 lead with 10 runs in the bottom of the first, but had to withstand a Marietta comeback to slip past the Pioneers, 14-12, at Charlotte High School in Punta Gorda.
 
The teams combined for seven homers, partially with the aid of a decent tailwind. Red Dragon senior captains Donny Castaldo (Mount Kisco/Fox Lane), Mark DeMilio (Valhalla) and Adam Smith (Vestal), along with senior Vinny Bomasuto (Dunkirk), homered for Cortland. Tim McCoy, Tyler Packanik and Chris Petrucci went deep for Marietta (6-3).
 
Junior Seth Lamando (Hopewell Junction/Roy C. Ketcham) went 3-for-4 with two doubles and an RBI to lead Cortland's 14-hit attack. Smith was 2-for-3 with two RBI and two run.  Junior Conrad Ziemendorf (Penfield/Webster Schroeder) and Castaldo each finished 2-for-5 with three RBI and two runs, while DeMilio went 2-for-4 with two RBI and three runs.
 
Marietta out-hit Cortland, 18-14. Eric White was 3-for-5 with an RBI and McCoy ended 3-for-6 with two RBI. Packanik, Chris Winpigler, Michael Barnabei and Mitch Geers each registered two hits.
 
Cortland's 10-run first featured RBI singles by Ziemendorf and Lamando, a Castaldo two-run double, a Smith RBi single, a two-run single Ziemendorf his second time through the lineup, and a Bomasuto three-run homer.
 
Marietta scored four in the second, including a Barnabei RBI double, but Castaldo hit a solo homer in the bottom of the inning to put Cortland up 11-4. Marietta's second reliever, Mitch McNabb, entered with two outs in the second and retired the first 12 straight batters he faced, and 15 of the first 16, to help keep the Pioneers in the game. Marietta scored once in the fourth, twice on a Petrucci two-run homer in the fifth, and three times in the sixth on a McCoy solo shot and a Packanik two-run blast to pull within 11-10.
 
Tyler Brien (Ilion), Cortland's second reliever, entered with one out in the sixth and struck out two batters. In the seventh, Marietta had a great chance to tie or take the lead after putting runners on first and third with no outs, but Brien got a pop-up, a strikeout and a lineout to end the threat and preserve Cortland's lead.
 
The Red Dragons then added three key insurance runs in the bottom of the seventh with two outs on a Smith solo homer, a Justin Teague (Syracuse/Cicero-North Syracuse) hit-by-pitch and a DeMilio two-run homer.
 
Brien struck out the side in the eighth. In the Marietta ninth, the first batter reached on a passed ball after a strikeout. Following a foul out, Travis Laitar (Fergus, ON/Centre Wellington) entered from the bullpen and allowed a White infield single. With two outs, pinch hitter Joey Begany singled in a run, and a double by McCoy put the tying runs on second and third. Geers walked to load the bases, but Laitar got the next hitter to ground into a fielder's choice to end the game.
 
Brandon Serio (Bedford Hills/Fox Lane) started for Cortland and earned the win despite allowing 11 hits and seven runs, six earned, in five innings. He struck out three and walked none. Brien finished with a pitching line of three innings with one hit, one walk and one unearned run allowed while fanning seven. Marietta starter Ray Sowinski took the loss with eight runs allowed in two thirds of an inning.
 
Cortland 21, Salem St. 6 (Box Score)
 
Cortland again got off to a quick start with five runs in the top of the first at the North Charlotte Regional Park. The Red Dragons scored once in the second and five more times in the third to go up 11-3, then blew the game open with two runs in both the fourth and fifth frames and five more in the seventh to take a 20-5 lead.
 
Three Red Dragons combined for 11 of the team's 27 hits. Keith Andrews (Commack) went 4-for-5 with two RBI and three runs. Nick Hart (Fredonia) finished 4-for-7 with two RBI and three runs, and Bomasuto was 3-for-4 with an RBI and two runs.
 
Matt Personius (Binghamton/Chenango Valley) homered and tripled and finished 2-for-4 with four RBI and two runs. Matthew Michalski (Buffalo/St. Francis) finished 2-for-3 with a triple, two RBI and two runs. DeMilio and Fabio Ricci (Hawthorne/Westlake) each went 2-for-3 with a walk, RBI and two runs.
 
Richard Fecteau finished 5-for-5 with two RBI and two runs for the Vikings (2-2), who were the MASCAC regular-season co-champion last season. Dom Rosado went 2-for-5 with an RBI.
 
Bomasuto, the first of four predetermined pitchers for Cortland, earned the win. He allowed four runs, three earned, in two and a third innings. Adam Brant (Staatsburg/Our Lady of Lourdes) threw two and two-thirds innings of two-hit scoreless relief with two walks, followed by Zach Ferris (Stephentown/LaSalle Institute) with two innings of three-hit ball. Ferris struck out one and gave up one unearned run. Jason Martin (Turin/South Lewis) finished the game with two innings of three-hit relief. He was charged with one unearned run while walking one and fanning two.
 
Mike Richardson suffered the loss for Salem State. Only two of the six runs he allowed were earned. Richardson gave up six hits and a walk and struck out two in an inning and a third.