FREDONIA, N.Y. – The nationally 25th-ranked Cortland baseball team completed its regular-season schedule with a pair of SUNYAC victories at Fredonia. James Varian (Hopewell Junction/Trinity-Pawling) drove in a combined seven runs in the doubleheader with a grand slam during the Red Dragons' 7-1 win in the nine-inning opener along with a two-run double and a sac fly in a 9-4 win in the seven-inning second game.
 
Cortland improved to 23-5 overall and 14-2 in SUNYAC play. The Red Dragons had already clinched the SUNYAC East title and will host Brockport, the second seed from the West, next Saturday in the first two games of a best-of-three SUNYAC semifinals. Cortland also secured the league's overall top seed and would host the best-of-three finals May 22-23 if victorious in the semifinals.
 
Cortland 7, Fredonia 1
 
Shane Mugolo (Howard Beach/Xaverian) earned the win as part of a predetermined rotation, allowing only three hits and one walk over four scoreless innings. He struck out three batters. Liam Krasney (Greenville) went the next three inning, giving up just one hit and fanning one. Scott Roberts (Escondido, CA/Del Norte) permitted one run on one hit with three strikeouts and a walk over the last two innings.
 
Cortland scored on an error in the first to take a 1-0 lead. In the third, the Red Dragons loaded the bases on an Antonio Pragana (Hopewell Junction/John Jay) leadoff single, a Scott Giordano (Croton-on-Hudson/Croton-Harmon) one-out single, a groundout, and a Paul Franzese (Somers) two-out walk. Varian followed with a homer to left to clear the bases and put Cortland up 5-0.
 
The lead grew to 6-0 in the fourth on Giordano's two-out triple and a Matthew Krafft (Cornwall) RBI single, and in the sixth Colin BeVard (Syracuse/West Genesee) singled and scored on a Giordano double. Fredonia's run came in the eighth on a Brian Chatt sacrifice fly.
 
Giordano finished 3-for-4 with an RBI and two runs, Varian was 2-for-4 with four RBI, Pragana was 2-for-4 with two runs, and Krafft finished 2-for-4 with an RBI. Johnny Genau went 2-for-4 for the Blue Devils, and Sam Cestra was tagged with the loss after giving up seven runs, six earned, on 12 hits in five and two thirds innings.
 
Cortland 9, Fredonia 4
 
Cortland struck quickly with four runs in each of the first two innings. Varian and Daniel Coleman (Saratoga Springs) hit back-to-back two-run doubles in the first, and the second featured a BeVard RBI single, a Ben Rhodes (Amsterdam) run-scoring double, a Varian sac fly and a Coleman RBI double.
 
Adam Mieczkowski (Vestal), a defensive replacement at catcher for Varian in the bottom of the third, closed the Cortland scoring with a solo homer to lead off the fifth.
 
Fredonia scored four times in the bottom of the fifth. An error brought in a run, along with bases-loaded walks by Kenneth Benitez and Matt Heffernan and a Tyler Phillips sac fly.
 
Zack Durant (Verona/V-V-S), the first of six Cortland pitchers in a predetermined rotation, retired all six batters he faced for the win. He struck out two. Spencer Weyand (Hornell) and Mike Hennessy (Smithtown/Smithtown East) each threw a scoreless frame, Stephen Centorani (Windsor) didn't allow a hit or run and fanned two over two innings, and Bailey Gauthier (Camillus/West Genesee) finished the game by allowing a hit and striking out two in a scoreless seventh. Ryan Howard gave up eight runs, but only four earned, in an inning and two thirds as Fredonia's starter.
 
Coleman was Cortland's lone player with multiple hits, finishing 2-for-2 with two doubles and three RBI. Varian was 1-for-1 with three RBI, BeVard was 1-for-2 with a walk and RBI, and Rhodes was 1-for-2 with an RBI and two runs. Benitez went 1-for-2 with a walk and RBI for Fredonia (3-16, 0-16 SUNYAC). The Blue Devils are a SUNYAC West member this spring, but their doubleheader with Cortland counts in the league standings for both teams.