EDWARDSVILLE, PA. - The nationally 17th-ranked Cortland baseball team split a non-league doubleheader with New York University, played on a neutral field at Wilkes University. NYU scored twice in the top of the eighth to break a tie and held on for an 8-7 win in the opener. Cortland exploded for eight runs in the top of the sixth in Game 2 to erase a 2-0 deficit on the way to a 15-3 victory.
 
NYU 8, Cortland 7
 
NYU broke a 6-6 tie with two runs in the top of the eighth on CJ Franchini's two-run double. Cortland got a run back in the bottom of the inning with two outs on a Lucas Granger (Horseheads) single, a balk, a Joe Yovino (Levittown/Division Avenue) walk and a Logan Karwowski (Clay/Cicero-North Syracuse) RBI single. A Talon Elkins (Syracuse/West Genesee) walk loaded the bases before a groundout ended the inning. Cortland got a runner on with one out in the ninth, but a lineout to second turned into a game-ending double play.
 
NYU scored three in the first on a Franchini sac fly, a Max Oliviera RBI triple and a Domonic Holton RBI single. Yovino's two-out, two-run single in the bottom of the inning made it 3-2. In the third, NYU scored twice on Mason Clark's two-run single, but the Red Dragons put up two in the bottom of the inning on a Nicholas Plue (Schenectady/Guilderland) RBI single and Nick Vendola (White Plains) RBI fielder's choice.
 
The Violets went up 6-4 on another Franchini sac fly. Cortland tallied a run in the fourth on a Nolan Smith (Hamburg) RBI groundout and tied the game in the sixth on an Anthony Carlo (North Bellmore/St. Anthony's) single and Tristan Gatchalian (Manorville/Eastport-South Manor) triple.
 
Yovino finished 3-for-4 with a walk and two RBI, Carlo was 2-for-3 with a triple, three walks and three runs scored, and Karwowski went 2-for-3 with an RBI for the Red Dragons. Franchini finished 2-for-3 with a double and four RBI and Harrison Blueweiss, Kosta Mocklis and Matt Dahl also recorded two hits apiece.
 
Ryan McLaughlin (Warwick/Warwick Valley) was charged with the loss as he was responsible for NYU's two runs in the eighth. Brady Scheidt was the pitcher of record when NYU took the lead for good and earned the win. Tyler Tedeschi gave up one run over the final two innings for the save.
 
Cortland 15, NYU 3
 
Cortland was hitless and scoreless for the first five innings as NYU took a 2-0 lead. The Violets scored twice in the bottom of the third on an Aidan Howladar RBI triple and Blueweiss sac fly. Caden Rothbaum pitched the first three and a third innings, walking three and striking out two, and Clayton Greene kept Cortland off the board in the rest of the fourth and in the fifth. Greene, however, eventually took the loss.
 
In the top of the sixth Cortland exploded for eight runs to take an 8-2 lead. Trey McGowan (Blue Point/Bayport-Blue Point) led off with a walk and Gatchalian hit a homer to left for Cortland's to tie the game. Later in the inning, Granger singled in a run to give the Red Dragons the lead, a run scored on a passed ball, Dan Collins (Poughkeepsie/Spackenkill) hit an RBI double and Michael Molinelli (Warwick/Warwick Valley) hit an RBI single. Another run came in via a double play grounder, and Gatchalian, in his second at-bat of the inning, hit an RBI double down the right field line.
 
NYU scored once in the sixth, but Cortland tacked on two runs in the seventh on Karwowski's two-run single. The Red Dragons' final five runs were scored in the top of the ninth on a wild pitch, RBI singles by Vendola and Smith, and a James Bolton (Webster/Webster Thomas) two-run double.
 
Elkins started on the mound and allowed two runs, one earned, on five hits in four and a third innings. Eli Stowe (Poughkeepsie/Millbrook) entered in the fifth with runners on first and third and one out and induced a double play grounder to end the inning. He was the pitcher of record when Cortland took the lead for good in the sixth.
 
Xander Payne (Medina) entered with the bases loaded and no outs in the bottom of the sixth. He got the first batter he faced to ground into a double play, with a run scoring, and a groundout ended the inning. Payne went three innings and gave up two hits, no walks and no runs with two strikeouts. Luke Boule (Syracuse/Christian Brothers Academy) allowed one hit and fanned two in a scoreless ninth.
 
Four Red Dragons finished with multiple hits as part of a 14-hit attack. Gatchalian went 2-for-3 with a homer, double, two walks and three RBI and Karwowski was 2-for-3 with a double and two RBI. Smith finished 2-for-5 with an RBI and Granger was 2-for-6 with an RBI and two runs. Ten different NYU players registered one hit apiece.