CORTLAND, N.Y. – The top-seeded and nationally 20th-ranked Cortland baseball team advanced to the championship round of the SUNYAC tournament with a 7-3 win over second-seeded New Paltz at Wallace Field.
Cortland (30-10-1) will face New Paltz on Sunday at 10 a.m. with a chance to win the title. If New Paltz is victorious, a final winner-take-all game will follow. In Saturday's other action, third-seeded Oswego defeated fourth-seeded Plattsburgh, 8-3, to eliminate the Cardinals, and New Paltz (28-14) rallied to defeat Oswego, 4-3, to knock out the Lakers.
Cortland reached the 30-win mark for the 19th straight season (not counting the shortened 2020 campaign) and for the 29th time in the last 30 complete seasons.
Nick Jessen (Syracuse/West Genesee) went six innings for the victory, allowing three runs, two earned, on six hits. He struck out five and walked one.
Ryan Banks (Woodbury/Syosset) entered to start the seventh inning with Cortland leading 5-3 and pitched the final three frames for the save. He gave up no runs on two hits with a walk and two strikeouts.
Nick Marola (Saratoga/Scotia-Glenville) finished 3-for-3 with a walk, two RBI and two runs scored. His two-run homer in the seventh accounted for Cortland's final two runs, and he also doubled and scored in the sixth.
Adam Mieczkowski (Vestal) hit a three-run homer in the second to give the Red Dragons a 3-1 lead.
Nick Chemotti (Syracuse/West Genesee) singled in a run in the second and finished 2-for-4 with a hit by pitch.
Mitchell Kelly (Webster/Webster Thomas) ended 2-for-5 and
Mat Bruno (Rye) was 1-for-3 with a double, walk and sacrifice fly.
New Paltz led 1-0 on Michael Ascanio's two-out homer in the top of the first. The Hawks closed to within 4-3 in the sixth, scoring once on an error and once on a Fabian Apicella RBI single. On the Apicella single, a runner from second was thrown out at home by center fielder
Chris Bonacci (Syracuse/West Genesee) to end the inning.
Dillon Ristano and Apicella each finished 2-for-4 for the guests. Starter James McGovern allowed five runs on seven hits with four walks in five innings.
