Baseball falls to Cortland in conference final

The Brockport baseball team proved to be a worthy adversary in the SUNYAC Championships, taking second place, Sunday, May 3. Brockport knocked off Plattsburgh and Fredonia in the double elimination tournament before losing to Cortland twice, once in the second round and again in the championship."They made plays," Brockport head coach Justin Beach said of Cortland. "They had good pitching and timely hitting in both games."

Brockport took on Fredonia in the first round, who they beat 3-1. Joe Zaccardo led the Brockport offense, going 2-for-3 with two RBIs off a triple and a home run. But, it was Kris Gentzke who hit in the go-ahead run when he singled in the third inning to score Todd Allen.

Jason Shannon provided another stellar performance for the Golden Eagles, pitching a complete game, allowing only one run and struck out six.

Brockport's next opponent was top-seeded Cortland, who they fell to 11-6. Brockport stayed close the entire way, only trailing by one run after the sixth inning, but were unable to put together another late-inning rally.

As Beach said, "timely hitting" was something Brockport struggled with throughout the game. Despite rattling off 13 hits to Cortland's 15, Brockport left a total of 12 runners on base en route to the loss.

But Brockport was down, but not out, as they went on to beat Plattsburgh handily by a score of 10-3.

Jason Michaels led all Brockport batters, going 3-for-4, with three RBIs and two runs scored. Jamie Rose went 1-for-4 with two RBIs, including a two-run homer in the bottom of the seventh.

James Joy got the start for Brockport, who pitched seven and two-third innings and gave up three runs off four hits. Joy also struck out seven batters and improved his record to 3-3 on the year.

The win against Plattsburgh gave the Golden Eagles one last shot against Cortland, a team that has been their Achilles heal all season.

Brockport knew they would need to get off to a strong start, and that they did, scoring three runs in the first inning. Meola knocked in the first run when he singled to score Michaels, who advanced to third on a wild pitch.

The next RBI came from Gentzke, who lofted a ball deep enough for a sacrifice fly, which scored Meola. Rose added the third run of the inning with a single up the middle to score Max Zimmerman. Brockport added another run at the top of the third when Todd Allen singled to score Mike Meola.

Cortland battled back, scoring three runs in the first three innings, brining Brockport's lead down to one run going into the fourth. Cortland would take the lead in the bottom of the inning, scoring two runs to go up 5-4.

The Red Dragons never gave up the lead after that, as they went to score three more in the sixth. Brockport was able to get one run back in the seventh, but it was not enough, as they fell to Cortland in the championship game, losing 5-8.

Brockport still has a shot to place in the ECACs, as they were selected as the No. 3 seed in the ECAC Upstate championship. They play St. John Fisher Saturday May 9 at host Fredonia. With a win, they'll play the winner of Fredonia-Cazenovia.