Baseball Eliminated by Cortland in NCAA Regional
AUBURN, N.Y. – Fourth-seeded Mitchell College was knocked out of the 2021 NCAA Division III Baseball Championship by a 3-0 loss to second-seeded SUNY Cortland at the Auburn (N.Y.) Regional on Saturday night at Falcon Park.
After staving off elimination earlier in the day against Merchant Marine Academy, the Mariners (26-9 overall) outhit the Red Dragons 6-2 but failed to push a run across the plate. Cortland starter Scott Roberts tossed 7.0 scoreless innings while reliever Bailey Gauthier closed out the shutout.
Mitchell had a chance to score in the first after Dougie DelaCruz supplied a two-out double down the left-field line. However, Roberts got a ground ball to escape unscathed, a theme that developed over the course of the night.
Cortland led off the third inning with a pair of walks, and a balk moved both runners into scoring position with no outs. A ground ball to first and a fly ball to right plated both runners and gave the Red Dragons a 2-0 lead.
In the fourth, Cortland put runners on the corners with no outs and chased Mitchell starter Eddie Kaftan from the game. A sacrifice fly by Ben Rhodes then extended the lead to 3-0.
Reliever Bryce Bedard kept the Mariners in the ballgame with the best outing of his career. He retired all 15 batters he faced over the final 5.0 innings and struck out three.
Mitchell left two runners on base in the fifth and one in each of the next three innings. The Mariners just couldn't come up with a timely hit to put pressure on Red Dragons.
Lelo Martinez and Hunter Yaworski each finished with a pair of hits while Logan Casala had a double.
Cortland (29-7 overall) advances and will play either Tufts University or Merchant Marine Academy on Sunday.