Box Score

AUBURN, N.Y. – The Second-ranked SUNY Cortland baseball team scored four runs in the top of the eighth inning to turn a tie game into a 9-5 lead, and held on for the win over 18th-ranked Rensselaer. With the victory, the Red Dragons improve to 41-3 overall, winning their 37th consecutive game. The Red Hawks fall to 35-11 on the year and will take on the winner of the Eastern Connecticut/Montclair State game at 1:15pm, tomorrow. The winner of that game faces Cortland tomorrow evening at 5pm.

The only runs scored after the fifth inning came in the top of the eighth as Cortland scored four times, breaking a 5-5 tie. The inning was highlighted by a two-run single from senior shortstop Matt Vitalone (Rome, NY/Rome Free Academy).

Senior Ryan Hooper (Red Hook, NY/Red Hook) pitched a solid 4.2 innings of relief to pick up the victory, allowing just four hits – all singles – and a walk, while striking out seven. He was able to close out the ninth for his four win of the season.

Rensselaer jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning. A Patrick Reardon (Troy, NY/LaSalle Institute) single drove both runs in with one out in the inning. Reardon finished the day 4 for 5 with the two RBI.

The Red Dragons came back to tie the game in the top of the third, as senior catcher Mike Zaccardo (Rochester, NY/Irondequoit) hit the first pitch he saw from Red Hawks’ starter John Dreimiller (Ticonderoga, NY/Ticonderoga) over the left field fence for an opposite field, two-run home run.

The two teams traded runs in fourth and fifth, with RPI scoring two in the bottom of the sixth to knot the game at five apiece. Dan Valentine (Goshen, CT/Avon Old Farms) picked up a sacrifice fly and an RBI, while Jim Devine (Castleton, NY/Castleton) scored the tying run a wild pitch.

The game remained scoreless until the eighth, when Cortland scored four runs on just three hits. Vitalone ended up 1 for 5 with two runs and two RBI. Leadoff man Khyle Dimino (Lima, NY/Brighton) went 2 for 4 with a run and an RBI, while Zaccardo finished 1 for 3 with a home run, two runs and two runs batted in.

Aiding Readon’s night at the plate was Valentine, who finished 2 for 3 with a run scored and a run batted in. Sean Wilkes ended up 1 for 3 with a run. Mike Cieszko (Stevenson Ranch, CA/William S. Hart) took the loss for the Red Hawks allowing four runs on two hits and two walks over 1.1 innings. He had one strikeout.