Cortland Sports Information Department
CORTLAND, N.Y. - Ithaca scored in the bottom of the fifth to break a 3-3 tie and the second-seeded Bombers went on to defeat top-seeded Cortland, 5-3, in a winner's bracket game of the NCAA Division III Baseball Cortland, New York Regional.
Cortland (33-12) will face Eastern Connecticut State in an elimination game Sunday at 11 a.m. That contest was originally scheduled to be held on Saturday afternoon but was postponed due to the weather. Eastern Connecticut eliminated St. Joseph's (Long Island), 5-4, in Saturday's first contest. The Cortland/Eastern Connecticut winner will face Ithaca in the championship round Sunday at 2:30 p.m. If Ithaca loses that game, a winner-take-all title game will be played on Monday at a time to be announced.
Colin Leyner went the distance for Ithaca, allowing three runs on nine hits with four strikeouts and one walk in nine innings for the win. Cortland starter Anthony Fusco (Yorktown Heights/Yorktown) allowed three runs on five hits over three and a third innings. He struck out two and walked four. Liam Krasney (Earlton/Greenville) took the loss after allowing an unearned run in an inning and a third. He didn't allow any hits but he walked three batters. Shane Van Dam (Cranford, NJ) went the final three and a third innings and gave up one run on one hit and one walk with two strikeouts.
Ithaca led 3-0 after three innings. Gil Merod singled in a run in the bottom of the second (Ithaca was the designated "home" team), and Matt Fabian doubled in a run and Colin Shashaty drove in a run with a bunt single in a two-run third.
Mat Bruno (Rye) put Cortland on the board with a leadoff homer in the top of the fourth - his school-record 25th career round-tripper. The Red Dragons then escaped a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the bottom of the fourth with a unique double play grounder in which first baseman Matthew Krafft (Cornwall) fielded a grounder, touched first and then threw home to get the Ithaca runner from third caught in a rundown.
Cortland tied the game in the top of the fifth. Chris Bonacci (Syracuse/West Genesee), Nick Chemotti (Warners/West Genesee) and Bruno each singled with one out to load the bases. Adam Mieczkowski (Vestal) hit a sac fly to center to score Bonacci and Krafft singled through the right side to score Chemotti from second.
Ithaca's go-ahead run scored on a two-out error with runners on first and second. The Bombers plated an insurance run in the seventh on a Riley Brawdy RBI double. Leyner limited Cortland to two hits and no runners in scoring position over the final four innings.
Bruno and Krafft each finished 2-for-4 with an RBI and Bonacci went 2-for-4 as Cortland out-hit the Bombers, 9-6. Six different Ithaca players recorded one hit apiece, with Shashaty also walking twice.
