Box Score

Junior Mike Weakley (Liverpool, NY/Liverpool) drilled a fourth-inning two-run homerun against Cortland on Friday afternoon to help lead The College at Brockport Baseball team to a 7-5 victory in their first State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) game of the year. The Golden Eagles improve their overall record to 12-5 on the year. Entering the game, the Red Dragons were ranked No. 8 in the latest NCAA Division III polls but fall to 11-5 on the year.

Following a one-out single by Corey Booth (Middletown, NY/Minisink Valley) and Brockport trailing 4-1 in the fourth, Weakley drove a pitch over the left-center wall for his first homerun of the season and third of his career. Brockport's used a big seventh inning as the Golden Eagles tacked on four runs to take the lead as Cortland went through five different pitchers in the inning. Junior Mark Driesel (Kent, NY/Kendall) pitched one inning to earn his first win of the year and sophomore Justin McCarthy (Mohegan Lake, NY/Lakeland) pitched one and two-thirds innings to get his sixth save on the year.

The Red Dragons struck first with two runs in the top of the second off of Brockport starting pitcher Aaron Tilley (Troy, NY/Troy). The Golden Eagles got on the board in the bottom half of the second with a two-out homerun by Nick Bunce (Rochester, NY/Greece Athena), his second of the year. Cortland State took a three run lead after putting up two more runs in the top of the fourth, but Weakley's homerun in the bottom half brought Brockport back to within one.

Tilley left a runner in scoring position after getting the final out of the fifth with a called-third strike. Tilley sat down the Red Dragons 1-2-3 in the sixth and was relieved in the seventh with one out. Cortland scored one run in the seventh before Brockport came to the plate. After a walk by Jake Coleman (Hilton, NY/Hilton) and a single by Bunce, Cortland starting pitcher Aaron Schuldt was removed from the game. Mike Gianni (Jamesville, NY/Jamesville-Dewitt) put the ball in play and a throwing error by the first baseman allowed Coleman to tie the score up.

After Cortland entered their third pitcher of the inning, Jamie Boronczyk (Syracuse, NY/Corcoran) was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Leadoff hitter Pete Wilson (Rochester, NY/West Irondequoit) hit a liner up the middle to score Gianni and Bunce and give Brockport their first lead of the game. Cortland brought in their fifth pitcher of the inning to face Booth, but the senior singled to right field to bring in Wilson and put Brockport up 7-5.

Driesel started off the eighth with a groundout, but then hit three consecutive batters to load the bases. McCarthy entered the game to face the top of the Cortland lineup. The sophomore got an infield popup and a grounder back to the mound to end the threat. McCarthy had no trouble in the ninth as he got the Red Dragons to popup to the infield twice and fly out to leftfield to end the game.

The Brockport pitching staff allowed seven hits on the day, but kept the top of the lineup fooled all afternoon. The Cortland 1-5 hitters, including two 2011 First-Team All-SUNYAC selections, went a combined 1-21 on the day. Tilley finished the game with six strikeouts and allowed just one walk.  

Booth finished the game with three hits and Bunce went 2-4 on the day with two runs scored and one run batted in. Wilson finished 1-4 to extend his hitting streak to 10 games.

The two teams square off tomorrow afternoon for a SUNYAC doubleheader. The first game is set to begin at 12:00 pm and the second is scheduled for 3:00 pm.