GREENSBORO, N.C. – The Cortland baseball team, ranked 13th nationally by D3baseball.com and 21st by the ABCA, opened its 2026 season with an 11-1 win over Marietta College during the opening day of the D3 Showcase tournament. The game was called after seven innings due the tournament's 10-run rule.
 
Cortland continues play at the tournament with three more games in Greensboro - Friday at 4:45 p.m. versus sixth-ranked Lynchburg, Saturday at 11 a.m. against Christopher Newport, and Sunday at 11 a.m. versus third-ranked Denison.
 
Dan Collins (Poughkeepsie/Spackenkill) and Ryan McLaughlin (Warwick/Warwick Valley) combined to allow two hits and three walks and struck out eight batters for the Red Dragons. Collins started and gave up one hit - a Zack Molloy solo homer with one out in the bottom of the fourth - and finished with three strikeouts and a walk. McLaughlin pitched the final three and two thirds innings and gave up one hit and two walks with five strikeouts. McLaughlin officially earned the win since Collins didn't pitch the minimum four innings required for a win in a seven-inning contest, nor did he qualify for a "predetermined rotation" win since a minimum of three pitchers are required for that run to take effect.
 
Cortland's offense exploded for 13 hits and nine walks against the Pioneers, who also were playing their season opener. Tristan Gatchalian (Manorville/Eastport-South Manor) went 3-for-4 with two walks and Talon Elkins (Syracuse/West Genesee) was 2-for-5 with five RBI and three runs. Elkins hit his first collegiate homer - a grand slam in the top of the seventh for Cortland's final four runs.
 
JJ DeLawder (Hyde Park/Franklin D. Roosevelt) also homered and finished 2-for-3 with a hit by pitch, an RBI and two runs scored. Nolan Smith (Hamburg) was 2-for-4 with three RBI and Trey McGowan (Blue Point/Bayport-Blue Point) was 1-for-2 with three walks and three runs scored. Lucas Granger (Horseheads) ended 2-for-3 with a double and two walks.
 
Marietta starter Austin Ziance, a third-team all-region selection last season, took the loss after allowing five hits and five runs, four earned, with four walks and two strikeouts in an inning and a third. Josh Pedersen struck out four, walked two and gave up four hits and two runs, one earned, in four innings of relief. Molloy and Thomson Babineau each went 1-for-3 for the Pioneers.
 
Cortland scored two in the first when a Smith single was misplayed in the outfield, allowing two runs to score. Elkins hit an RBI single and Smith had a two-run single in the second to make it 5-0, and DeLawder's leadoff homer and Smith's sacrifice fly gave the Red Dragons a 7-1 lead in the sixth. Cortland created its 10-run lead in the seventh on a one-out DeLawder hit by pitch, a Danny Jackson (Lagrangeville/Arlington) single, a McGowan walk and Elkins' grand slam to right.