Cortland Sports Information Department
CORTLAND, N.Y. – The Cortland baseball team had its season come to an end as the Red Dragons lost twice to visiting Endicott College, 16-3 and 7-5, during the championship round of the 2022 NCAA Division III Cortland, N.Y., Regional.
Cortland finishes the year with a 35-12 record and tied for 17th nationally. The Red Dragons were making their 29th consecutive NCAA tournament appearance, extending their Division III national record. Endicott (40-8) advances to the best-of-three super regional versus Baldwin Wallace on Friday and Saturday, May 27-28, at a site to be announced.
Endicott 16, Cortland 3
Endicott struck for 12 runs in the top of the third and never looked back as the Gulls forced a final game for the title. The inning featured a Kyle Grabowski two-run homer, RBI singles by Caleb Shpur and Jake Nardone, a Nickolas Perkins two-run double, RBI singles by Dylan Pacheco, Grabowski and Matthew McKinley, and a Joseph Millar three-run homer. The Gulls added a run in the seventh on a Grabowski RBI single. Nicolas Notarangelo hit a two-run homer in the eighth and Grabowski added a solo shot in the ninth.
Ian Parent went the distance on the mound for the Gulls, allowing three runs on nine hits. He struck out two and walked three. Grabowski went 4-for-5 with five RBI and three runs, Millar drove in three runs and scored twice, and Notarangelo and Perkins each drove home two runs.
Nick Chemotti (Warners/West Genesee) went 3-for-3 and drove in all three of Cortland's runs. He hit an RBI double in the sixth and a two-run single in the ninth. Paul Franzese (Somers) was 2-for-3 with two runs scored. Anthony Fusco (Yorktown Heights/Yorktown) took the loss after giving up nine runs, eight earned, in two and a third innings.
Endicott 7, Cortland 5
Endicott rallied from a 5-2 deficit with five runs in the top of the eighth, capped by Notarangelo's grand slam to right. The inning started with a Pacheco walk, a Grabowski hit by pitch and a McKinley walk. One out later, Shpur hit an RBI single to right to make it 5-3, and Notarangelo, the tournament MVP, followed with the go-ahead homer.
Endicott led 1-0 in the first on a Nardone sac fly. Cortland tied the game in the second when Franzese reached on an infield single and scored on a two out Matthew Krafft (Cornwall) single, combined with a fielding error by the right fielder.
Cortland took a 2-1 lead in the fifth on an Andrew Michalski (Buffalo/St. Francis) RBI single, and the Red Dragons had the bases loaded with one out but couldn't add to the lead. Endicott tied the game on Shpur's solo homer in the top of the sixth, but Cortland answered with a run in the bottom of the inning on an Antonio Pragana (Hopewell Junction/John Jay) sacrifice fly. Shpur then robbed Michalski of an RBI single on a diving catch in right center to end the inning.
Cortland extended its lead to 5-2 in the seventh on a Scott Giordano (Croton-on-Hudson/Croton-Harmon) walk, a one-out James Varian (Hopewell Junction/Trinity-Pawling) single, and a two-out, two-run single up the middle by Chris Bonacci (Syracuse/West Genesee).
Endicott starter John Connolly gave up two runs, one earned, in four and a third innings. Will Fox followed by giving up a run on two hits in an inning and two thirds. Max Tarlin, Endicott's third reliever, entered in the seventh with two outs and allowed Bonacci's single before getting a groundout to end the inning. Tarlin earned the win as the pitcher of record when Endicott took the lead in the eighth. Alexander Zaiser tossed two hitless innings of scoreless relief with three strikeouts and two walks to earn the save.
Will McCarthy (Farmingdale) started for Cortland and gave up three runs on just three hits in seven-plus innings. He struck out one and walked two. He left after walking the leadoff batter in the eighth.
Bonacci finished 2-for-3 with two RBI and Krafft was 2-for-4 for Cortland. Shpur went 3-for-4 with two RBI and two runs to account for three of Endicott's five hits.
McCarthy, Varian and Franzese represented Cortland on the regional all-tournament team. In addition to Notarangelo being named tournament MVP, Endicott was represented on the all-tourney team by Parent, Pacheco, Grabowski, Shpur and Gabe Van Emon. The other two selections were Bridgewater State's Matt Josselyn and St. John Fisher's Luke Duffy.
