Game #9 • State University of New York-Cortland 5, Carthage College 2

 

Red Dragons Keep Redman At Bay

 

GRAND CHUTE, Wis. – Apparently the less Mike Zgorzelski knows, the better.

Cortland State University head coach Joe Brown didn’t tell his starting pitcher that he would get the ball Sunday against Carthage College until about an hour before the start of an elimination game at Time Warner Cable Field at Fox Cities Stadium.

“We like to keep them guessing every now and then,” Brown said with a laugh in the wake of the Red Dragons’ 5-2 victory over Carthage.

Cortland State (42-6) advances to play either the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point or Kean University at noon on Monday. Carthage is eliminated from its sixth appearance in the finals and finishes its season with a 37-13 record.

“It felt all day like we were trying to squeeze water out of a rock,” Carthage head coach Augie Schmidt said. “Four hits is not going to win a lot of games.”

Zgorzelski went 5 2/3 innings, allowed only four hits, struck out seven and walked three to improve to 8-0 on the season.

“I just wanted to go out and compete,” Zgorzelski said. “Normally I worry about whether I’m going to have my good stuff. ... I didn’t care. I just wanted to compete.”

The Red Dragons staked Zgorzelski to a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first against Carthage starter Chris Krepline. Anthony Coromato started the rally with a one-out double. After a walk to Mike Zaccardo, Dan Maycock’s ground ball hit Zaccardo. The umpire initially ruled the ball had not struck Zaccardo, but after a conference with the other umpires, Zaccardo was called out.

Matt Vitalone then walked to load the bases, but Carthage couldn’t escape the jam, as Steve Nickel singled over the head of shortstop Jose Alba to score two runs.

“This thing has been full of goofy plays, hasn’t it?” Schmidt asked the assembled media with a laugh. “Then it settled down and it was a good baseball game. We just didn’t have an answer for their pitcher.”

The Red Men came back in the top half of the second to trim the lead to 2-1 on Mike Hughes’ solo homer over the left-field fence.

Cortland State put some distance between themselves and the Red Men with three runs in the bottom of the fifth. After Joey Russo started the inning with a single and went to second on a sacrifice bunt, Coromato doubled down the left-field line to put the Red Dragons up 3-1. Zaccardo followed with a single to put runners at the corners. After a strikeout and stolen base, Vitalone singled to left field to score two runs and give Cortland State a 5-1 edge.

Carthage had a chance to get back into the game in the sixth, when the Red Men loaded the bases with consecutive singles by Steve Rucks, Tyler Yapp and David Hermes. Pinch-hitter Anthony Gragnani then struck out looking. After a balk scored Rucks, Zgorzelski then struck out Hughes looking.

After Zgorzelski went 2-0 on the next batter, Tyler Heegeman, the Red Dragons brought in Ryan Hooper in relief. He got Heegeman on a comebacker, and the inning was over.

“The next three guys, we didn’t get a good swing,” Schmidt said of the sixth inning. “That was a huge inning. That was a real turning point. We just needed to get a good hack.”

Hooper allowed only a one-out walk in the ninth, as he tossed 3 1/3 innings of hitless relief to pick up his fourth save of the season.

Schmidt refused to blame a possible emotional hangover from Saturday night’s 12-8 loss to UW-Stevens Point in an electric winner’s bracket.

“I think ‘want-to’ got in the way a little bit,” Schmidt said. “We pressed. You hit that elimination game and everyone wants to do a little bit extra.”

By Joe Vanden Acker
Lawrence University Sports Information Director