Cortland Knocks Out Rival Ithaca with 3-2 Victory

#1 Cortland State - 3, #2 Ithaca - 2

Farmingdale, N.Y. - In a game that saw no scoring until the top of the fourth, top-seeded Cortland (31-13) defeated Ithaca 3-2 in today's first game, eliminating the Bombers (29-10) from the double-elimination Regional bracket. The Red Dragons now face #4 Farmingdale State on Friday, in an elimination game, at 7:00 p.m.

Ithaca took a 1-0 lead in the fourth when sophomore David Ahonen (Farmington, N.Y.) singled with one out and scored on senior Alan Kartholl's (Fishkill, N.Y.) two-out double to left center.

Cortland knotted the game with two outs in the sixth on junior Kevin Jackson's (Wappingers Falls, N.Y.) single and junior Steve Nickel's (Lake Ronkonkoma, N.Y.) RBI triple to left center.

Ithaca re-gained the lead in the seventh when sophomore Trevor Wolf (Freeville, N.Y.) hit a solo homer to right with one out.

Ithaca led 2-1 before the bottom of the eighth, as Cortland started its game-winning rally with a Mike Avery (Cortland, N.Y) leadoff infield single and a fielder's choice from Jackson. With two outs, Nickel kept the rally alive knocking a single into right center that moved Jackson over to third. A wild pitch allowed Jackson to score the tying run, moving Nickel to third, while sophomore Alex Coffey’s (Hilton, N.Y.) bunt single drove in Nickel for the go-ahead run.

Sophomore Travis Ratliff (Levittown, N.Y.) pitched eight and a third innings for his third win of the year, while allowing two runs on eight hits, walking one and striking out five. Junior George Jweid (New Hartford, N.Y.) entered with a runner on and one out in the ninth and forced two ground outs for his third save of the season.

Tom Fishback (Webster, N.Y.) started for Ithaca and allowed three runs, two earned, over seven and two-third innings, with four strikeouts and two walks.

Nickel, Coffey, Avery and Andrew Pezzuto (Hastings) each finished 2-for-4 for Cortland. Wolf went 2-for-3 and Ahonen finished 2-for-4 for Ithaca.


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