Cortland Stays Alive at World Series After Edging Whitworth, 5-4
GRAND CHUTE, WIS. – Sophomore Max Rosing’s (Rockville Centre/South Side) RBI double and sophomore P.J. Rinaldi’s (Bethel, CT) RBI single gave Cortland a 4-3 lead in the sixth inning and the Red Dragons held on to defeat Whitworth University (Wash.), 5-4, in an elimination game at the NCAA Div. III Baseball World Series.
Cortland, now 2-1 at the tournament, will play Tuesday at a time to be announced. It appears, based on the tournament bracket, that the Red Dragons will face the University of St. Thomas (Minn.), but the official pairings will not be announced until after the rest of Monday’s games are completed.
Junior John Adornetto (Commack), junior Andrew Pezzuto (Hastings) and senior Matt June (Colonie) each finished with two hits for the Red Dragons (41-8-1). Adornetto was 2-for-3 with a walk, RBI and two runs scored. Pezzuto went 2-for-4 with a double and two runs scored and June was 2-for-4.
Junior Mike Hughes (Albany) improved to 9-2 with the victory. He allowed three runs in the third inning as Whitworth took a 3-2 lead, but settled down to pitch four scoreless innings before giving up a run in the eighth. In seven and a third innings he allowed nine hits, three walks and four runs and struck out four.
Whitworth, which advanced to the World Series in its first-ever NCAA Div. III tournament appearance, finishes with a 31-16-1 record. JR Jarrell went 3-for-3 with a double and two RBI and Kevin Valerio was 2-for-4 for the Pirates. Spencer Ansett suffered the loss after allowing eight hits and two walks and all five Cortland runs in six and a third innings.
Cortland took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first as it scored in the opening inning for the third straight game. Pezzuto reached on a one-out bunt single and took second on a wild pitch. Adornetto walked and Pezzuto advanced to third on a Rosing flyout. After Adornetto stole second, junior Michael LaTempa (LaGrangeville/Arlington) hit a two-run single to left.
Hughes escaped a bases-loaded, two-out jam in the second after getting a groundout to end the inning. In the third, however, Gerhard Muelheims walked with one out and Tyler Pfeffer hit an RBI double to right center. Landon Scott drew a walk and Jarrell singled to right center to drive in Pfeffer with the tying run. Scott went to third on the hit and scored on Joshua Davis’ squeeze bunt to give the Pirates the lead. Davis was safe on an error on the play, but Hughes induced an inning-ending double play to escape further damage.
Cortland started its two-run rally in the sixth with an Adornetto bunt single. On a hit-and-run, Rosing doubled to right center to plate Adornetto with the tying run. Rosing went to third on a LaTempa groundout and scored on Rinaldi’s single to shallow right field.
The Red Dragons added a key insurance run in the seventh. Pezzuto doubled to left center with one out and scored on Adornetto’s single up the middle. That run proved to be the winning run as Whitworth scored once in the eighth. Scott hit a one-out single and scored on a Jarrell double to right center. Senior Brendan Hourihan (Yorktown Heights/Lakeland) relieved Hughes at that point and got Davis to ground out to first, with Jarrell moving to third. Kevin Valerio then lined out to center to end the inning.
Senior Tom Nagy (Greenville/Minisink Valley) entered to start the top of the ninth and walked Paul Miller, the leadoff batter. The walk was only Nagy’s third walk issued in 14-plus innings this season. Ryan Beecroft bunted Miller to second, but Nagy struck out the next batter and induced a groundout to second to end the game for his fourth save of the spring.
Box Score
Video Highlights
Interactive Bracket
NOTEBOOK:
* Cortland is guaranteed at least a fourth-place finish nationally. The Red Dragons have now finished fourth or better in six of their 11 World Series trips (second in 2005 and 2010; third in 1997 and 1998; fourth in 2007; this year to be determined). Cortland has won at least one World Series game 9-of-11 times.
* Senior reliever Brendan Hourihan tied a school record with his 71st career pitching appearance. He currently shares the record with Chris Fuller, who pitched from 1996-99.
* Senior second baseman Matt June moved into second place on Cortland’s career hits list with two hits in the contest. He has 225 career hits, one better than Scott Weston (1997-2000). Andrew Mead recorded a school career-record 235 hits from 2003-06.
* Cortland is 1-2 lifetime vs. its next opponent, St. Thomas. One of the Red Dragons’ losses to the Tommies came in the 2001 World Series in Wisconsin, and the teams have not played since.
* With Ray Angelucci (12-1) and Mike Hughes (9-2), Cortland has two pitchers with nine or more wins in a season for just the third time in school history. Phil Tyskewicz won 10 games and Brian Rose won nine games in 1994. In 2005, Matt Miller and Mike Burnett each won nine games.
QUOTEBOOK:
Cortland Head Coach Joe Brown:
I congratulate Whitworth. That’s a very good baseball team. They’re very disciplined. They play loose.
It was a good baseball game. Mikey (Mike Hughes) hung in there after one rough inning where the ball was up a little, partially because he hasn’t pitched in a while. He did a very good job, and our bullpen did a very nice job.
These games are tremendously mentally challenging – probably for the coaches more than for the kids.
We felt very confident coming out here because we felt we had three very, very good front-line (pitchers) and a couple of guys behind them who probably can throw very well. We’ll see that soon.
(about scoring two runs in the first inning)
It was huge. Just having come off yesterday where we faced a super pitching performance by the kid from Wheaton, and to have this kid (for Whitworth) out here who you knew, right now, was going to be tough. Anytime you’re facing a lefty , whoever it is, and they have a changeup – that kid’s a freshman; that’s impressive…(LaTempa’s two-run single) was a jam-shot. It wasn’t beautiful, but it settled things.
(on John Adornetto’s bunt single to start sixth inning rally)
That’s a read – he does it very, very well. Not many three-hitters will say ‘hey, I want to bunt.’ He understands that.
(about thought process when going to the bullpen in the eighth inning)
We’ve got a lot of pretty good options down there. It’s not really a “righty-lefty” situation for us because some of our righties throw better against lefties.
(on potential matchups the rest of the tournament)
It doesn’t matter. Every single team here is good. They’ve earned it and have done a great job…At this point, honestly, I’m just happy to still be here and give another kid a chance to go to the mound, and we’ll see what happens.
Junior pitcher Mike Hughes:
(about mindset after giving up three runs in the third inning)
I was still confident. I knew my defense would make plays. I just had to throw strikes. They did a good job putting the bat on the ball, but if I threw strikes I knew my defense would back me up.
(about what was working for him after he settled down and pitched four scoreless inning from the third through the seventh)
I was getting the ball down in the zone and my off-speed was working pretty good for me. They were getting a lot of ground balls and easy pop-ups, so I was in a groove for a little bit.
Junior shortstop John Adornetto:
(on decision to bunt for hit that started go-ahead rally in the sixth)
That’s my decision. Coach gives it sometimes, but I see the defense playing back and I’m just trying to get on base so I can help my team out – to get me over and get me in when it’s a tight game like that. The first baseman was playing far back the whole game and the second baseman wasn’t anywhere close either.
(on at-bat in seventh vs. reliever Jason Renner that resulted in RBI single and a 5-3 Cortland lead)
Warming up, I saw that he wasn’t locating his off-speed good, so I was sitting fastball the whole at-bat. He got behind on me. I could see his grip a little bit from behind. I knew what kind of pitch was coming, so I just tried to put my best swing on it and find the hole.
