SALISBURY, MD. – The Cortland baseball team, ranked second nationally in Division III, scored all seven of its runs in the second inning and went on to defeat top-ranked and defending national champion Salisbury, 7-3, in the Red Dragons' season opener at the Salisbury Baseball Stadium. 
 
Cortland will face Widener University Saturday at 10 a.m. at Salisbury and will play the host Sea Gulls Sunday at noon. 
 
Scott Giordano (Croton-on-Hudson/Croton-Harmon) finished 3-for-5 with a double and two RBI, Danny Coleman (Saratoga Springs) was 2-for-5 with an RBI and James Varian (Hopewell Junction/Trinity-Pawling) hit a two-run homer to lead Cortland's nine-hit attack. Salisbury (2-1) was led offensively by Scott Cameron, who was 1-for-4 with two RBI, and Kavi Caster, who finished 1-for-1 with four walks. 
 
Cortland escaped a potentially dangerous situation relatively unscathed in the bottom of the first. Patrick Campbell walked and stole second, Caster walked, Campbell stole third, Caster later stole second, and Cameron hit a sacrifice fly to drive in a run. A Stephen Rice walk and Sky Rahill hit-by-pitch loaded the bases and chased Cortland starter Ryan Flansburg (Queensbury). Spencer Weyand (Hornell) entered and induced a double play grounder to short to end the inning. 
 
Weyand was credited with the win as he was the pitcher of record when Cortland posted its seven-run second. Coleman led off with a single and Varian, after fouling off numerous pitches, hit a two-run homer to left to give the Red Dragons the lead. Later in the inning, Paul Franzese (Somers) hit an RBI double down the left field line and, with two outs and two on, Giordano hit a two-run double to left. The Red Dragons added runs on a Coleman RBI single and a Ben Rhodes (Amsterdam) bases-loaded walk. 
 
Salisbury got two runs back in the third on a Cameron RBI single and a Rice sacrifice fly, but from that point neither team scored again. Cortland managed only four baserunners over the final seven innings. Salisbury loaded the bases in the fifth before a groundout ended the inning, and the Sea Gulls stranded runners on first and third in the seventh and first and second in the ninth. 
 
Weyand gave up a hit, a walk and two runs in an inning and two thirds. Matt Funk (Pine Plains) pitched two innings of two-hit scoreless relief with one strikeout, Anthony Fusco (Yorktown Heights/Yorktown) allowed a hit and three walks in two and a third scoreless inning, and Liam Krasney (Greenville) earned the save after pitching the final two and two thirds innings. He entered in the seventh with two runners on, one out and the potential tying run on deck. He got a fielder's choice and a groundout to end that threat, retired the side in order in the eighth, and allowed a walk and a single in the ninth but no runs. 
 
Salisbury starter Jackson Balzan was knocked out in the second inning after giving up six runs on five hits and two walks in an inning and two thirds. Balzan finished 9-1 last season, including a complete-game win over Cortland to open the Division III World Series. Brandon Epstein (3.1 innings, 2 hits, 2 K's), Robbie Hollenbeck (2 innings, 0 hits, 1 BB, 3 K's) and Justin McDermott (2 innings, 1 hit, 1 K) combined for seven and a third scoreless innings of relief for the Sea Gulls.