GRAND CHUTE, WIS. – Senior Khyle Dimino (Brighton) hit for the cycle, junior Dan Kapan (Penfield) drove in five runs and seniors Steve Nickel (Lake Ronkonkoma/Sachem North) and John Zilnicki (Riverhead) recorded four hits apiece as nationally 11th-ranked Cortland blew out top-ranked Johns Hopkins, 23-8, in an elimination game at the NCAA Div. III World Series

Cortland (38-9-1) is one of four teams remaining in the eight-team tournament with two days left. The Red Dragons will face Illinois Wesleyan University on Monday at 3:30 p.m.. Illinois Wesleyan is 3-0 in the tournament thus far. Linfield and Heidelberg, both 2-1, will play Monday at noon. If Cortland wins Monday, it will play the Linfield/Heidelberg winner Tuesday, with that winner having to face Illinois Wesleyan for the title. 

Dimino is the third player in the history of the NCAA Div. III World Series, and the first since 1996, to hit for the cycle. He doubled in the second, hit a three-run homer in the fourth, singled in the fifth and tripled to lead off the seventh. He finished 4-for-5 with four RBI and four runs scored.

Kaplan, making his first NCAA tournament start for the Red Dragons, was 2-for-6 with a solo homer, five RBI and two runs scored. Nickel went 4-for-4 with two RBI and two runs and Zilnicki went 4-for-5 with a walk, RBI and four runs. Other big contributors to Cortland’s 26-hit attack were senior Shawn Bailey (Webster/Webster Schroeder) and sophomore Matt June (Colonie), who each finished 3-for-6 with a triple, three RBI and two runs scored, and senior Adam Dimino (Honeoye Falls/Honeoye Falls-Lima), who was 3-for-6 with an RBI and two runs.

Junior Scott Hartling (Pleasant Valley/Arlington) pitched six innings for his fourth win of the season. He was victorious despite allowing 11 hits, four walks and eight runs. Senior Brandon DeRosa (Fairport) allowed two hits and struck out three in two scoreless innings and senior Ed Southworth (Cortland) gave up two hits in a scoreless ninth frame.

The win was the 400th career victory for 11th-year head coach Joe Brown, all at Cortland. His overall record is 400-111-2.

Five Johns Hopkins players – Sam Wernick, Chris Huisman, Dave Kahn, Lee Bolyard and James Teta – finished with two hits apiece. Huisman, Brian Youchak and John Swarr each hit solo homers in the sixth inning to set an NCAA Div. III World Series record for most homers in an inning by one team. The Blue Jays finish the season with a 44-7 record.

Cortland trailed 1-0 before scoring eight runs on seven hits and three Hopkins errors in the top of the second. Big hits in the inning included RBI doubles by Khyle Dimino and senior Andersen Gardner (Fairport). Hopkins put three runs on the board in the bottom of the second on two bases-loaded walks and a Kahn sacrifice fly, but Kaplan’s solo homer in the fourth gave Cortland a 9-4 lead.

In the fourth, Nickel’s RBI single and Khyle Dimino’s three-run homer extended the lead to 13-5. The Red Dragons batted around for the second time in the game during an eight-run fifth inning. June and Bailey each hit two-run triples and Kaplan singled in two runs during that explosion. Cortland’s final two runs came in the seventh on a Kaplan RBI groundout and a June RBI single.

“QUOTE”BOOK:

Cortland Head Coach Joe Brown:

“Any time you’re facing elimination it’s a challenging task. As evident by our seniors, who I believe had 18 or 19 hits today alone (actual number was 19), that was a very good performance playing a very, very, very, very good team again. That’s what you have to do this time of year.”

“Dan (Kaplan) was not on the regional roster, but when we came out here (to the World Series) and we had some potential injury issues, we thought that he was important to add to the roster. I give him and Shawn Bailey an awful lot of credit. Facing a left-hander, we decided to throw a couple more right-handed hitters in the lineup and they produced.”

(about the win being his 400th coaching victory) “It’s a neat thing, I guess. But I’ll be honest with you, I remember the losses sometimes more than I remember the wins, because those are the ones that end your season typically. We have a lot of great players. Realistically, coaches would say that at Cortland we’ve been blessed with very good alumni.”

Cortland Senior Outfielder Khyle Dimino:

(about the team’s confidence level after losing 25-11 to Linfield on Saturday) “We were sitting on the vans yesterday after the game and I remember looking back at my brother, Adam, and (Steve) Nickel, and they both said that after losses…we always come back the next day ready to play. We don’t get nervous. Everyone just gets jacked up. We were ready to go. Relaxed, but still ready to go.”

(about whether he realized he had hit for the cycle when he tripled in the seventh) “Because the (PA) announcer said it, but not until that.”

(about getting ready for Monday) “It’s kind of like what we did today. Show up, be ready to play. Hit the ball as hard as we can and score when people are on base.” (NOTE: 23 of Cortland’s 31 batters that reached base via hit, walk, error or hit batter scored vs. Johns Hopkins)

NOTEBOOK:

* Steve Nickel’s single in the fourth inning was the 200th hit of his collegiate career. Nickel is the sixth Cortland player to reach the 200-hit mark and the second this season. Andersen Gardner surpassed the career 200-hit mark during the SUNYAC tournament in early May.

* Jason Simone was the last Red Dragon starter to record a hit in the contest. He started the game 0-for-5, but singled in his final at-bat in the eighth inning to extend his hitting streak to 21 straight games.

* Dan Kaplan entered the game with four RBI on the season before driving in five runs versus Johns Hopkins. Kaplan was not on Cortland’s 24-man roster for last week’s NCAA Div. III regionals in Auburn, but was included on the Red Dragons’ 24-man World Series roster this week.

* Scott Hartling is the second member of his family to win a wild elimination game at the Div. III World Series. Hartling’s brother, Ken, pitched five and one-third innings of hitless relief as Cortland rallied from a 12-7 deficit to defeat Chapman, 15-12, in the 2005 Series.

* Cortland has now won at least two games in five of its 10 World Series trips. The Red Dragons finished second nationally in 2005 with a 4-2 mark and were third with a 3-2 record in both 1997 and 1998. Cortland also went 2-2 to finish fourth in 2007. 

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