THOUSAND OAKS, CALIF. – California Lutheran scored twice on wild pitches in the bottom of the ninth and the Kingsmen rallied to defeat visiting Cortland, 6-5, in a non-league baseball matchup.
Cal Lutheran completed a three-game weekend sweep of the Red Dragons to improve to 9-3. Cortland fell to 4-7.
JJ DeLawder (Hyde Park/Franklin D. Roosevelt) finished 2-for-3 with a walk,
Nolan Smith (Hamburg) went 2-for-4 with an RBI and
Dylan Mackenzie (Canandaigua/Canandaigua Academy) was 2-for-4 for the Red Dragons.
Chris Bonacci (Syracuse/West Genesee) hit his first career homer, a two-run shot that tied the game at 3-3 in the second. He also walked twice and scored twice.
Josh Quinn went 3-for-4 and Kai Caranto and Troy Anderson each finished 3-for-5 for CLU. Blake Wink and Lucas Danielewicz both were 2-for-5.
Devin Georgetti (Rochester/Gates Chili), who relieved Cortland starter
Nick Jessen (Syracuse/West Genesee) in the first, allowed one run over four and a third innings. He gave up seven hits and no walks and fanned five.
Cam Darrow (South Glens Falls) went the next three and a third innings and allowed two hits and no walks with one strikeout. He was charged with the first of CLU's two runs in the ninth.
Greg Mays (Troy/Tamarac) was charged with the other run and suffered the loss.
Kyle Johnson earned the win after blanking Cortland on two hits with four strikeouts and no walks over the final three innings.
The Kingsmen's winning rally started with a Quinn leadoff double. He moved to third on a groundout and scored on a wild pitch to tie the game at 5-5. Caranto singled, but was forced out on a Danielewicz fielder's choice. Anderson singled moved Danielewicz to third. With runners on second and third, Cortland intentionally walked Sebastian Smith to load the bases, but the first pitch to the next batter was wild and allowed the winning run to score.
Cortland took a 1-0 lead in the first on
Mat Bruno's (Rye) RBI fielder's choice. CLU scored three times in the bottom of the first on a Caranto RBI double, Danielewicz RBI single and Smith RBI single, but Bonacci's homer to right knotted the game in the second.
The Red Dragons scored twice in the third to take the lead. The first run scored on a strange play in which Cortland had a runner thrown out at home trying to score from second on a single, but the CLU catcher, thinking it was the third out, tossed the ball to the mound and the runner who started the play at first scored.
Zachary Kringdon (Larchmont/Mamaroneck) followed with an RBI double.
CLU got a run back in the fourth on Wink RBI single, and neither team scored again until the bottom of the ninth.
Cortland continues its West Coast trip on Tuesday at La Verne.
