LEXINGTON, S.C. – The nationally fifth-ranked Cortland baseball team opened play at Case Western Reserve's Spartan Southern Classic with a 3-2 loss to Case and a 7-3 win over Roger Williams University at Lexington County Stadium.

The two games were originally scheduled for other dates during the week, but were moved to Saturday due to future weather forecasts. Cortland (5-5) will be idle Sunday and will play Case Monday at 10 a.m. in the third of eight scheduled neutral-site games for the Red Dragons.
 
Case Western 3, Cortland 2
 
Case scored single runs in the second, fifth and seventh innings, then held off a Cortland rally in the top of the ninth that saw the Red Dragons score twice and strand the tying run at third. Case starter Mark Gross allowed six hits and two runs, one earned, over eight and two thirds innings with one walk and six strikeouts for the victory.
 
The Spartans took a 1-0 lead on Jacob Lott's sac fly in the second. In the fifth, Rocco Maue hit a ground-rule double and scored on Jacob Kucia's RBI single. Samuel Neal's solo homer in the seventh pushed the lead to 3-0.
 
At one point Gross recorded 15 straight outs, starting with a double play to end the fourth and ending with a strikeout to start the ninth. Colin BeVard (Syracuse/West Genesee) broke that streak with a ground-rule double, and he moved to third on a two-out Patrick Schetter (Beacon) single. Danny Coleman's (Saratoga Springs) single scored BeVard and moved pinch runner Ralph Nuzzi (Mount Kisco/Fox Lane) to second.
 
Pinch hitter Justin Teague (North Syracuse/Cicero-North Syracuse) followed with a grounder to second. The second baseman made a diving stop and his throw to first was in time to get Teague, but the first baseman dropped the throw to allow a run to score and put runners on first and third. Liam Killingstad relieved Gross and got a groundout to second for the save.
 
Schetter and Coleman each finished 2-for-4 and Wyatt Myers (Chittenango) was 1-for-3 to lead the Cortland offense. Christian Dufresne (Cocoa, FL/Space Coast) took the loss after allowing six hits and two runs in five innings with four strikeouts and one walk. Steven Salisbury (Cranston, RI/Moses Brown), Cortland's final reliever, gave up one hit and no runs in two innings with one strikeout and no walks.
 
Maue was 2-for-3 with three steals and Noah Mehrle finished 2-for-4 for Case (4-1).
 
Cortland 7, Roger Williams 3
 
Cortland scored four times in the bottom of the first on its way to the win over the Hawks. Mike Harrington (Glens Falls) earned the win in relief after tossing four and two thirds shutout innings to finish the game. He gave up three hits, fanned seven and walked none. Isiah Hudson (Hyde Park/FDR) did not qualify for the win despite leaving with the lead as he was pulled one out into the fifth and was one of only two Cortland pitchers in the game. In four and a third innings he allowed six hits and three runs, struck out three and did not walk anyone.
 
Nate Budge (Central Square/Paul V. Moore) finished 2-for-3 with two runs scored and Marcos Perivolaris (Mattituck) was 2-for-4. Schetter hit a two-run homer in the fifth to close Cortland's scoring and extend his hitting streak to 21 straight games – tied for the eighth longest in school history. Joe Tardif (Cutchogue/Mattituck) went 1-for-2 with two RBI and BeVard was 1-for-2 with two walks.
 
Danny Roth was 2-for-4 with a triple and two RBI and Bryan Goodwin went 2-for-3 for the Hawks (0-5). Jimmy Smith took the loss after allowing seven runs in five innings. Matt Vernacatola did not give up any runs over the final three innings.
 
Cortland's four-run first featured five hits and three Roger Williams errors. Coleman and Tardif each had RBI singles in the frame. The Hawks scored three in the top of the third on Roth's two-run triple and Dean DePreta's RBI groundout. Tardif drove in a run on a sac fly in the bottom of the third to make it a 5-3 game. Budge's infield single preceded Schetter's two-run homer in the fifth.