CORTLAND, N.Y. – Tournament MVP Ryan Enos went 3-for-6 with a homer, double and four RBI as second-seeded Oswego defeated top-seeded Cortland, 11-7, to claim the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) baseball tournament title. Cortland entered the day needing two wins to capture the league title. Oswego finished the tournament with a 3-0 record.
Oswego (29-12) earns the league's automatic berth into the NCAA Division III tournament. Cortland (31-11-1) remains a strong candidate for an at-large berth into the national tournament. The NCAA field will be announced next Monday, May 13, at noon during a selection show on NCAA.com.
Enos was joined on the all-tournament team by Brian Nolan, the winning pitcher in the championship game, along with Lakers Kieran Finnegan, Nick DeMarco and Lukas Olsson. Cortland was represented on the team by
Matt Valin (LaFargeville),
Chris Puzakulics (Vestal) and
Colin BeVard (Syracuse/West Genesee), and the other selections were Oneonta's Dominic LaMonica and Robert Ottaviano and Fredonia's Sam Cestra.
BeVard's three-run homer in the bottom of the third staked Cortland to a 3-0 lead. Casey Gruarin tripled with two outs and scored on a Ryan Weiss single to put Oswego on the board in the third, but Cortland answered with a
Dan Schweitzer (Poughquag/Arlington) leadoff double and
Wyatt Myers (Chittenango) RBI single to go ahead 4-1 in the bottom of the inning.
Oswego started its comeback with an Olsson RBI single in the fifth, and the Lakers took the lead with three in the sixth on a Rocco Leone two-out RBI double and a Paul Tammaro two-run homer. Oswego's lead grew to 9-4 in the top of the eighth on an Enos three-run homer down the left field line and an Olsson RBI double.
Cortland responded with three runs in the bottom of the eighth to close to within 9-7.
Andrew Michalski (Buffalo/St. Francis) led off with a single, BeVard walked, and
Scott Giordano (Croton-on-Hudson/Croton-Harmon) hit a three-run homer to extend his on-base streak to 35 straight games (BeVard's homer in the third pushed his on-base streak to 27 games).
Oswego registered two key insurance runs in the top of the ninth – one on a Leone sac fly and the other on an Enos RBI single to center.
In addition to Enos' three hits, Weiss was 2-for-3 with two walks and Olsson went 2-for-5 for Oswego. BeVard and Giordano each drove in three runs with their three-run homers and Myers and Schweitzer each finished 2-for-4 for the Red Dragons.
