ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Senior Steve Nickel (Lake Ronkonkoma/Sachem North) singled in two runs during a three-run eighth inning to give Cortland the lead for good and the nationally 12th-ranked Red Dragons completed their regular season with an 8-3 win at RIT.

Cortland (32-8-1) will await a probable at-large berth into the NCAA Div. III tournament, which begins next Wednesday. The pairings will be announced Monday morning. Cortland will serve as the host school for the regional conducted at Falcon Park in Auburn May 19-23, regardless of whether it is chosen to participate.

Cortland's winning rally started when, trailing 4-3, sophomore Matt June (Colonie) singled with one out in the eighth to extend his hitting streak to 20 straight games. June is the eighth player in school history with at least a 20-game hit streak and he's six games shy of tying Craig Kerner's school record 26-game streak set in 1998.

With two outs, June stole second and senior Andersen Gardner (Fairport) walked. A wild pitch by reliever Brad Wright moved the runners to second and third and Nickel singled to drive in two runs. Nickel took second on the throw and eventually scored. The Red Dragons added three insurance runs in the ninth on a Damon Arnold (Wellsville) RBI double, a June RBI single and a pinch-hit RBI double by Kris Gentzke (Clarence Center/Clarence).

Senior Brandon DeRosa (Fairport), Cortland's fourth pitcher of the game, was the pitcher of record when the Red Dragons took the lead and earned the win. He retired all four batters he faced and is 2-1 on the season. Senior Khyle Dimino (Brighton) and junior Alex Coffey (Hilton) each went 2-for-3 and June finished 2-for-5 with two runs scored.

Ryan Campbell and Geoff Dornes each finished with three hits for RIT (18-20). Dornes was the Tigers' starting pitcher and gave up five hits and two runs, one earned, over six innings for a no-decision. Frank DiPinto took the loss after allowing June and Gardner to reach in the eighth.

RIT scored a run in the first on a Ed Hughes RBI single and another in the third on a Dornes RBI single to take a 2-0 lead. Coffey singled in a run for Cortland in the fifth, but RIT answered that same inning on a Chris Brol run-scoring single to go up 3-1.

Cortland drew within 3-2 in the sixth. Adam Dimino (Honeoye Falls/Honeoye Falls-Lima) walked with one out, went to third on a Gardner double and scored on a wild pitch.

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