SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS – The Cortland baseball team jumped out early thanks to home runs by
Lucas Granger (Horseheads) and
Nick Marola (Saratoga/Scotia-Glenville), and cruised to an 11-3 victory over nationally seventh-ranked Trinity on Thursday evening in the first game of a four-game series between the two sides.
The Red Dragons, ranked 24th nationally, end a three-game skid and improve to 6-5 on the year with the victory. Trinity drops its second consecutive game and falls to 13-3 on the season.
Granger finished 2-for-4 with a homer, his first as a Red Dragon. He also delivered a double, two RBI, two walks, and three runs scored. Marola hit his first homer of the season, and drove in three runs and scored twice.
JJ DeLawder (Hyde Park/Franklin D. Roosevelt) was 2-for-3 with a double and two runs scored.
Chris Bonacci (Syracuse/West Genesee) recorded a pair of doubles and drove in two runs.
Cortland starting pitcher
Nick Jessen (Syracuse/West Genesee) tossed four scoreless innings before being pulled due to a predetermined pitch count. He allowed just three hits and struck out five batters for the win to improve to 3-1 on the year.
Matthew Nochowitz (Glen Head/North Shore) pitched a 1-2-3 fifth inning, while
Tommy Lynch (West Seneca/Canisius) threw two innings, allowing one run.
Brady Mazzeo (Averill Park) gave up two runs in the final two innings.
Brandon Nelson went 2-for-4 with a home run, and Pierce Matthews finished 3-for-4 for the Tigers. Joey Hagen started on the mound and took the loss for Trinity, giving up six runs -four earned- over 1.2 innings. John McGowan, Wes Hellings, Kyle Hoggatt, and Sean McDermott combined to allow just one run over the final 4.1 innings.
Cortland scored twice in the first, four times in the second, and four more times in the fifth to go up 10-0. After Trinity scored a run in the sixth inning, the Red Dragons responded with a run of their own in the seventh. The Tigers completed the scoring with two runs in the bottom of the ninth inning for the 11-3 final score.
Bonacci doubled with a grounder down the left field line on an 0-2 pitch to start the top of the first inning, and Granger followed by hammering the first pitch he saw over the fence in deep left center for a two-run homer to give the Red Dragons a 2-0 lead.
Jessen pitched out of trouble in the bottom of the first, striking out three straight Tigers after the first two batters reached on a single and a walk.
DeLawder led off the second with a liner up the middle and into the gap in right center for a double, and came around to score on a throwing error on a ground ball to second base by
Talon Elkins (Syracuse/West Genesee). Marola followed by blasting a hanging curveball over the fence in left field to make it 5-0. Granger walked, moved to third on a single up the middle by
Nolan Smith (Hamburg), and scored on a passed ball to make it 6-0.
Jessen benefited from a pair of double plays turned by Cortland in the second and fourth innings, and induced a fly ball to Bonacci in center to escape a bases-loaded jam in the third inning.
The Red Dragons opened up a massive 10-run advantage with four more runs in the fifth. Marola was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to drive in a run, and Bonacci followed with a two-run double to deep left field. Marola came around to score on a Trinity error on a grounder that the second baseman couldn't handle.
Trinity broke the shutout bid with two outs in the bottom of the sixth inning, as Nelson homered off of Lynch to deep center on a 3-1 pitch.
Granger laced a double down the left field line in the seventh inning, and came around on a single up the middle by Smith. Smith finished 2-for-4 with an RBI and a walk for Cortland.
The first two batters in the bottom of the ninth reached safely with hits, and the Tigers scored on an RBI groundout by John Ramsey and then on a wild pitch.
