The University of St. Thomas did what the State University of New York-Cortland couldn't do Saturday night.

The Tommies took advantage of their scoring chances and that added up to an 8-3 victory over the Red Dragons in a winner's bracket game at the NCAA Division III Baseball Championships at Fox Cities Stadium. The Red Dragons, who stranded 10 runners, lost despite pounding out 14 hits. St. Thomas had eight hits but used two squeeze bunts and good baserunning to pull away from the Red Dragons.

"That was the game we lost in the series last year, this one, to get to the championship round," St. Thomas designated hitter Dan Novak said. "It's kind of nice to get into the championship round and know we're kind of in the driver's seat. Some team has to beat us twice, and it would be nice to know that we're in the driver's seat and we can keep going."

St. Thomas (34-12) advances to play either Wartburg College or Allegheny College in a noon game Monday. Cortland (36-8) drops into the loser's bracket and faces Chapman University (32-11-1) at 3:30 p.m. Sunday.

"I can't explain it," Cortland coach Joe Brown said. "We played hard, we tried hard, and we came up on the short end of the stick. This is a good baseball team. All I know is we're still here. We still have the opportunity to play another baseball game, and that's all you can ask for."

Cortland jumped on the board in the top of the first inning with a pair of runs. Mike LaPointe and Craig Kerner led off the game with singles and both moved up on a sacrifice bunt. Two hitters later, Mike Burns hit a looping line drive into left field to score both runners and give the Red Dragons a 2-0 lead.

The score remained 2-0 until the bottom of the third inning. Tom Wilberg and John Frein led off the inning with singles for St. Thomas, and both runners scored on Paul Rafferty's one-out triple to tie the game at 2-2. After a walk to Jake Mauer, Novak's squeeze bunt allowed Rafferty to score. Mauer and Novak moved to third and second, respectively, on a passed ball. Mauer then scored on Steve Aronson's squeeze bunt to give St. Thomas a 4-2 lead.

"When (Novak) squeezed, we were just a little tight and wanted that run," St. Thomas head coach Dennis Denning said. "We had our best pitcher on the mound and we wanted to get that run back and it worked. We got two runs back that inning with squeezes."

St. Thomas increased its lead to 5-2 in the fourth. Tom Wilberg drew a one-out walk and went to second on a ground out. He then scored on Brad Bonine's single to left field.

The Red Dragons cut the lead to 5-3 in the top of the fifth. Cory Haggerty and Greg Scerba led off the inning with singles, but Haggerty was then erased on a 1-5-3 double play. Kerner, who went 4-for-5, followed with a single up the middle to score Scerba. St. Thomas starter Mike Honsa avoided further damage by getting Scott Seabury to ground out to end the threat.

Cortland could have cut into the lead more in the sixth but couldn't capitalize on a pair of two-out singles.

The Tommies came back in their half of the sixth and scored three times. Ryan Benson led off the inning with a single and went to second on a sacrifice bunt. An error allowed Wilberg to reach base and Benson scored on the play to give St. Thomas a 6-3 edge. Frein then walked and that was it for Cortland starter Kyle Johnson (5-2). Brian Silsbee came on in relief and Brad Bonine greeted him with a slow roller to the right of the mound to load the bases. Silsbee then hit Rafferty to force home Wilberg and put the Tommies up 7-3. Mauer followed with a run-scoring groundout and St. Thomas led 8-3.

The Red Dragons continued to hit the ball hard, getting two hits in both the seventh and eighth innings. Cortland couldn't come up with a key hit in either inning and failed to score.

"I think it was a matter of when you get the hits," Kerner said. "You can have 20, 25 hits, and if you're getting them with two out and no men on, we were kind of shooting ourselves in the foot on a couple of plays. I just think it's a matter of timing,a nd today our timing just wasn't right."

Honsa (9-3) went the distance to get the win. He allowed 14 hits, walked two and struck out three.