Baseball Hangs Tough in NCAA Debut
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Mitchell | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 0 |
|
Cortland St. | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | X | 3 | 6 | 0 |
AUBURN, N.Y. – The Mitchell College baseball team made its postseason debut at the 2011 NCAA Division III Baseball Championship Auburn (NY) Regional on Wednesday afternoon, falling 3-1 to top-seeded SUNY Cortland at Falcon Field.
Mitchell (23-10-1 overall) represented itself well in the game, outhitting the nationally-ranked Cortland squad by an 8-6 margin. However, the Mariners failed to turn those hits into enough runs to pull off the upset. The Red Dragons (34-8 overall) move on to face Eastern Connecticut State University while Mitchell will face the College of Brockport in an elimination game on Thursday at 10 a.m.
Mitchell started the contest on a positive note thanks to a leadoff single up the middle by senior Jeff Perillo. After the Mariners failed to score a run in the frame, junior John Apostolo took the mound and quickly got three outs to keep the game scoreless.
Apostolo hit trouble in the second after issuing walks to the first two batters in the inning. The Red Dragons capitalized on the free passes, moving the runners into scoring position with a sacrifice bunt before Matt Wild delivered a two-run single to right-center field.
The Mariners threatened to score in both the third and fourth innings but ran themselves into outs on the base paths each time. Mitchell should have had the bases loaded with only one out in the third following a single to left field by freshman Anthony Santiago, but Cortland cut off the throw from the outfield and fired to third base to get the runner going back to the bag after a wide turn.
A double in the fourth gave Mitchell another scoring chance, and senior John McGarry came through with a two-out base hit up the middle that looked destined to reach the outfield. With the runner going hard on contact, Cortland second baseman Matt June made a diving stop behind the bag to keep the ball in the infield and cut the run down at the plate.
Mitchell finally got on the scoreboard in the sixth when Santiago led off with a double to left and scored on a single through the right side by Apostolo. The Mariners moved the tying run into scoring position with a sacrifice bunt by Felix Colarte, and sophomore Osmer Collado drew a walk to put the go-ahead run on base. However, Cortland starter Travis Ratliff escaped the inning by getting the next batter to ground into a double play.
The Red Dragons got a run back in the home half of the sixth when Nick Thode dropped a bloop single into right field to score a runner from third to make it 3-1. Apostolo was touched up for four hits in the frame but got out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam without any further damage.
Mitchell had something brewing in the seventh with runners on first and second with one out, but another double-play ball got Ratliff out of the inning unscathed. Ratliff pitched a complete game and scattered eight hits over 9.0 innings while striking out six and walking two.
Apostolo pitched into the seventh before turning things over to senior Drew Rossi. Apostolo allowed three runs on six hits in 6.2 innings and struck out five while walking three. Rossi threw the final 1.1 innings and didn't allow a hit.
Santiago and junior Angel Chacon each finished with a pair of hits in the game. Santiago had a single and a double and scored a run while Chacon slapped a pair of singles. Collado also doubled for the Mariners.
Cortland entered the tournament as the top seed in the region and a top-10 team in the nation. The Red Dragons were ranked sixth in the most recent ABCA Poll and eighth in the D3Baseball Poll.
The Mariners will now turn their attention to Brockport (27-13 overall), which dropped a 2-0 decision to Eastern Connecticut State University in the day's first game. The winner of the Brockport/Mitchell game will move on to play on Friday at 1:15 p.m. while the loser will be eliminated from the tournament.
