CORTLAND, N.Y. – Second-seeded New Paltz earned the SUNYAC title after registering two wins over top-seeded and host Cortland, 11-3 and 15-11, in the conference tournament championship round Sunday at Wallace Field.
 
New Paltz (30-14) won its first-ever SUNYAC title and earned an automatic berth into the NCAA Division III playoffs. Cortland (30-12-1), ranked 20th nationally by D3baseball.com, will await a probable NCAA at-large berth. The NCAA selections will be announced Monday at noon on NCAA.com and NCAA regional play is scheduled to begin on Friday, May 17.
 
Three Red Dragons were named to the SUNYAC all-tournament team: outfielder Mat Bruno (Rye), shortstop Nick Marola (Saratoga/Scotia-Glenville) and pitcher Nick Jessen (Syracuse/West Genesee).
 
New Paltz 11, Cortland 3
 
Ryan Knieriemen pitched five innings of three-hit ball for the victory that forced a winner-take-all championship game. He allowed one run, struck out one and walked two. Connor Olson followed with three shutout innings, giving up five hits and a walk.
 
New Paltz finished with 13 hits. Tommy Kreider went 3-for-6 with a double, two RBI and two runs and Justin Harvey finished 2-for-4 with a double, walk and three RBI. Anthony  Pericolosi was 2-for-6 with two runs scored and Michael Ascanio was 1-for-4 with two walks and three RBI.
 
Bruno, Adam Mieczkowski (Vestal) and Nolan Smith (Hamburg) each finished 2-for-4 with an RBI for Cortland. Devin Georgetti (Rochester/Gates Chili) allowed three runs in an inning and a third and took the loss.
 
Harvey doubled in two runs and Wallace Kirkpatrick added an RBI single in a three-run second for the Hawks. Kreider doubled in the fifth and scored on a Michael Boccarossa two-out RBI single to extend the lead to 4-0, and New Paltz added three in the sixth on a two-out, three-run double by Ascanio.
 
Cortland scored in the sixth on a Smith RBI double. New Paltz padded its lead with four in the ninth on a Harvey bases-loaded walk, a double play grounder and a Kreider two-run single. Cortland plated two in the ninth without a hit on four walks, the last by Jon Munoz (Yorktown/Yorktown Heights) to force in a run, along with a Mieczkowski RBI hit by pitch. Cortland left 14 runners on base and New Paltz stranded 11 runners.

New Paltz 15, Cortland 11
 
The teams combined for 37 hits - 19 by New Paltz and 18 by Cortland - in a wild title game in which New Paltz built a 13-3 lead in the top of the seventh only to have Cortland fight back and eventually bring the potential tying run to the plate with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth before a strikeout ended the game.
 
Nick Harvey, in his first pitching appearance of the season, started and went four innings. He allowed seven hits and three runs. Jeff Lundstedt was awarded the win as the Hawks' most effective reliever after giving up two runs in two and a two thirds innings.
 
Kreider, the tournament MVP, finished 4-for-5 with a double, three RBI and two runs scored. He was a combined 7-for-11 with five RBI in the championship round. Fabian Apicella was 3-for-4 with a walk, RBI and three runs, Justin Ortiz finished 3-for-5 with a double, an RBI and four runs scored, Dillan Ristano finished 3-for-6 with an RBI, Pericolosi was 2-for-6 with a triple, five RBI and two runs, and Ascanio went 2-for-4 with two walks.
 
Bruno went 4-for-6 with a double and three runs scored and Marola was 3-for-4 with a homer and three RBI. Marola hit three homers in the tournament. Dylan Mackenzie (Canandaigua) finished 3-for-5 with a homer and three RBI and Luke Schartner (Bayport/Bayport-Blue Point) and Chris Bonacci (Syracuse/West Genesee) each went 2-for-5, with Bonacci scoring twice. Mieczkowski was 1-for-3 with walks and two RBI and Nick Chemotti (Syracuse/West Genesee) homered and drove in two runs.
 
Cortland led 3-0 after three innings as Marola singled in two runs in the second and Mackenzie hit an RBI single in the third. New Paltz broke through for seven runs in the top of the fourth. Apicella walked with the bases loaded after three straight singles by Boccarossa, Ristano and (Justin) Harvey to start the inning. Ortiz singled in a run, and two batters later Kreider's RBI infield single tied the game. With two outs, Pericolosi hit a three-run triple to deep center, and he scored on a wild pitch to close the inning's scoring.
 
The Hawks added two in the fifth on a (Nick) Harvey sac fly and Kreider RBI double and four in the seventh, including a Pericolosi two-run single and a Ristano RBI single. Cortland picked up two in the seventh on a Mackenzie two-run homer, but New Paltz answered with two in the eighth on a wild pitch and a Kreider sac fly.
 
Cortland began its final comeback bid with three runs in the eighth. Marola hit a solo homer with one out. Bonacci singled, Bruno doubled and Smith hit a sac fly, and two batters later Mieczkowski hit an RBI double to deep left center. In the ninth, Chemotti hit a two-run homer to make it 15-10. With one out, Bonacci was hit by a pitch and Bruno singled. After a flyout for the second out, Mackenzie singled to load the bases and Mieczkowski walked to force in a run before a strikeout ended it. Cortland stranded 13 runners in the contest.