Cortland, N.Y. - Scoring in the top of the first inning and not again until the top of the tenth, the Clarkson University Baseball team picked up a 4-3 non-league win, Tuesday afternoon, muscling past SUNY Cortland.
Clarkson improves to 9-6 overall and breaks Cortland's three game win streak dropping them to 10-7-1 overall. The win marks the first victory for the Knights in the sporadic series with the Red Dragons since the 2009 NCAA New York Regional matchup between the two which Clarkson escaped with a 15-12 win.
Wasting no time, the Golden Knights would jump out to an early 3-0 lead in the top of the first while forcing Cortland to go to the pen before the first three outs of the contest were recorded. David Harris led off wearing a pitch to the body and moved to second after Aidan Kuefner forced a five-pitch walk. Harris then advanced to third off a Joe Figliolino fly-out to right field, putting a run in scoring position with two outs. Beau Vardion delivered on a full count, doubling down the right field line and bringing both Harris and Kuefner across to score and make it 2-0. Tyler Blake, on the mound for the Dragons would then issue another free pass before giving up a single to CJ Cartier to score Vardion and complete his outing before the conclusion of the inning. Still with two outs and runners on first and second, Xander Payne, who entered the game for Blake, forced a foul fly-out to end the inning and limit the damage done to that point.
After leaving two runners on base through the bottom half of the first and second, Cortland would eventually find a response in the third, loading the bases with no outs. Tristan Gatchalian would be forced to ground into a fielder's choice allowing one run to score while the Clarkson infield would get the force out at second but an errant throw on the attempted double-play allowed another run to score and make it 3-2 Clarkson. Despite giving up a single and wild pitch to put runners at second and third with two outs, Chase Fisher would do well to strike out the last batter of the inning and keep the Golden Knight lead intact.
That lead would last until the bottom of the fifth when Cortland would tie things up as Gatchalian walked to start the innings and advance to third following a single and sacrifice bunt. A Logan Karkowski groundout to the second baseman allowed Gatchalian to cross home and knot the score at 3-3.
Both teams would work their way out of similar jams in the sixth and seventh innings as each would see opportunities with runners on second and third with two outs but be forced into groundouts to the third base side to keep each other from adding to their totals.
Harris would provide a spark in left field for the Knights late-on, making a diving play in the left-center gap with two outs to prevent at least the go-ahead run scoring from first as the game would enter extras following a quick ninth inning.
Into the top of the tenth, Kuefner led off with a double to left center on the first pitch of his at-bat to immediately put pressure on the hosts before Figliolino followed with a single up the middle to plate Kuefner and put Clarkson up 4-3. Despite a Vardion single, James Mason sacrifice bunt and an intentional walk to Cartier to load the bases with one out, Cortland managed to escape the inning down just one as two straight strikeouts would end the top half of the frame. Cameron Barbulean would force two straight pop-ups to start the bottom of the ninth before hitting the third batter of the inning but any hope Cortland had of a late equalizer would fade as Barbulean forced a third fly-out of the inning to end the contest at 4-3.
Barbulean would be awarded the win in relief, closing a five-pitcher effort for Clarkson, striking out one while giving up no hits and just one walk through three innings. Tommy DiFranco struck out three in a 2 inning start. Joe Yovino was handed the loss for the Red Dragons, allowing four hits while striking out five through five innings of work.
Clarkson finished with nine hits as a team led by multi-hit outings from Figliolino, Vardion and Cartier but stranded 11 runners over the 10 innings. Vardion would finish with two RBIs as well while Kuefner would end with one while scoring twice.
