OSWEGO, NY – The #22 SUNY Brockport Golden Eagles baseball team lost in. a hard-fought battle to the #12 SUNY Cortland Red Dragons in the SUNYAC Tournament Finals by a score of 12-9.
 
SUNYAC All-Tournament Team: For their outstanding performance at this year's SUNYAC Tournament, RP Adam Douglas, CF Nicholas Pastore, 2B James Houlahan, and utility player Tom Kretzler were all names to the 2022 Baseball All-Tournament Team


 
Batting Highlights: James Houlahan helped the Golden Eagles as the leadoff man went 4-for-6 at the plate scoring one run and driving in one RBI. Brian Tietjen recorded two RBIs on a base hit and ended up scoring later in the game with Justin Pangburn recorded two hits, including a double and two RBIs.
 
Matt O'Dair picked up two big hits in today's game as well. Ryan Mansell, Zach Eldred, and Jake Sisto would all score in the game as each earned hits with Eldred hitting a leadoff double in the top of the ninth inning with Brockport trailing 12-8.
 
Record Breaker: Tom Kretzler finished the day going 3-for-5 at the plate scoring two runs and two RBIs. in his first plate appearance, Kretzler was able to come around and score his 44^th run this season to break Max Keado's (2010) single-season runs record of 43 in a season. With three hits, Kretzler also reached a millstone that's never been accomplished by any SUNY Brockport player in the program's 74 years of existence when he recorded his 200^th career hit which happened on a solo home run.
 
Game Recap: The Golden Eagles used six different arms on the mound in today's game against the Red Dragons. Matthew Colucci started on the mound for Brockport as the Red Dragons would get out to an early 5-0 lead before Nick Lawlor entered the game with one out remaining in the first. Lawlor would go on to pitch a total of 2.2 innings wherein the top of the third inning, Brockport would rally back down 5-0 to score six runs and gain a 6-5 lead over Brockport.
 
Cortland would score two more runs in the bottom of the fourth to pull ahead 7-6. Justin DelVecchio would then enter the game with the final stat line for Lawlor being 2.2 innings pitched allowing two runs and five while striking out one batter. DelVecchio would get out of the fourth inning when entering with two outs already he recorded a strikeout to end the side.
 
With no runs scored in the fifth and DelVecchio on the mound in the bottom of the sixth, Cortland would pull ahead 9-6 going into the top of the 7^th. Brockport would get one run back on the board following Kretzler's solo shot to center to make it a 9-7 game. With a runner on second and one out to go, Cooper Meldrim then entered the bottom half of the inning retiring the first batter he saw on a fly out to center fielder Nicholas Pastore.
 
Jake Jempty would enter to pitch in the bottom of the eight and give up a one-run before Adam Douglas would enter the game with two outs to go in the bottom of the eighth and record the last two outs, but not without Cortland scoring two more runs to make it 12-7 going into the top of the ninth inning.
 
The Golden Eagles fought back hard and with a leadoff double from Zach Eldred to spark the inning and a single by Matt O'Dair ended up putting Eldred in scoring position for Zach Harter to hit a pinch-hit sac fly to make it a 12-8 game with two outs and O'Dair on first. Pangburn would next double to left-center to score O'Dair making it a 12-9 game with the top of the order up. James Houlahan's single to center field would put runners on first and third as Ryan Mansell drew a walk to load the bases. Tom Kretzler then stepped up to bat for the Golden Eagles trailing by three runs, the bases loaded, and two outs in the top of the ninth. Following a hard-hit ball to center field, Cortland's center fielder caught the ball on the warning track to end the game just short of the fence.
 
What's Ahead: With a 33-9 Overall record and the runner ups of the conference tournament the Golden Eagles will now wait until Monday's Division III baseball selection show to see if they will receive an at-large bid into this year's 2022 NCAA Tournament.