CORTLAND, N.Y. –  Sophomore righty Will McCarthy recorded only his second complete game in 12 starts with a six-hitter as top-seeded SUNY Cortland eliminated third-seeded Eastern Connecticut State University from the 2023 NCAA Division III Cortland, NY Baseball Regional with a 7-2 win Sunday morning at Wallace Field.

After losing its opener Friday to second-seeded Ithaca College, 11-2, Eastern (35-12) remained alive Saturday with a 5-4 victory over fourth-seeded St. Joseph's University, L.I., but was held in check Sunday by the 6-foot-6 inch, 225-pound McCarthy (7-1), who allowed more than one hit in an inning only once, forcing the predominately left-handed hitting Eastern lineup to hit into ten routine ground ball outs to the right side of the infield.  Twice in the game, Eastern got a leadoff single but grounded into double plays.

SUNY Cortland (34-12), which is 29-5 in its last 34 games after losing seven of its first 12 (primarily to nationally-ranked teams), has beaten Eastern in NCAA regional play the last three times the teams have met after the Warriors had beaten the Red Dragons in three of the first four post-season meetings.  

In Sunday's championship game, Ithaca bludgeoned Cortland, 15-0, to win the title, downing the Red Dragons for the second time in the tournament and advancing to next weekend's best-of-three Super Regional. 

Wallace, who had averaged less than five innings in his first 11 starts, struck out two and walked his season average (one in the seventh inning) in his route-going performance, allowing more than one hit in an inning only once. Five of the hits he gave up were singles.

In a battle of two teams who have combined for 28 regional championships (Cortland 15, Eastern 13) and six national titles (Eastern five, Cortland one), Cortland moved out to an early 6-0 lead, with the Warriors getting two back on senior catcher Matt Malcom's (East Lyme) 15^th home run of the season (39^th of his career and 200th career hit) in the fourth and No. 9 hitter Noah Plantamuro's (Bristol) opposite-field single to right in the fifth that sent home junior DH Alejandro Soriano (Hartford), who had singled through the right side leading off the fifth and moved to third on junior first baseman Ryan Parent's (Southington) opposite field single through the left side.

Making his NCAA debut, 6-foot-7 inch, 250-pound first-year righty Dylan Scudder (Simsbury) did not make it through the third inning before giving way to senior righty Nathan Furino (East Haven), who continued his impressive post-season excellence by giving up only one run on four hits over the final 5 1/3 innings.

The first two batters of the game singled off Scudder in the first inning and a ground ball plated the first run of the game. In the third, the Red Dragons scored five times (four coming with two out) on two hits, two hit-by-pitch, a walk and wild pitch. Zachary Kringdon capped the inning with a two-out, two-run single. Three of Cortland's runs in the inning were scored by batters who had reached on either a hit-by-pitch or walk.

 

Soriano was Eastern's only player with more than one hit. In addition to his leadoff single in the fifth, Soriano singled leading off the seventh but was erased on Cortland's ground ball double play started by junior shortstop Andrew Michalski. Malcom's solo home run with two out in the fourth left him ranked second-all-time in career home runs behind only Melvin Castillo's 46. His 15 home runs this year are the third-most in a season (most in 19 years) behind All-Americas Brian Mercado (1990) and Dwight Wildman (2004), who share the season record of 20.

In three tournament games, Eastern was charged with only one error with middle infielders Zach Donahue (South Windsor) and Plantamuro committing only one error on a combined 33 chances (21 assists). In two relief appearances, Furino gave up only one (earned) run on five hits and no walks with two strikeouts in 8 1/3 inning. As a staff, however, the Warriors had a 7.92 ERA in 25 innings, but only six of the 34 hits they allowed went for extra bases (all doubles).

Eastern batted .272 as a team, led by its three outfielders: junior Josh Cofrancesco (Southington) and Jason Claiborn (Prospect) and sophomore transfer Ray Leonzi (Trumbull) (who combined for 20 putouts without an error), and Parent. Leonzi (.385), Cofrancesco (.364), Claiborn (.333) and Parent (.300) all hit .300 or better.

Claiborn and Furino represented Eastern on the all-tournament team.

Leonzi had his 22-game on-base streak ended. He grounded out three times and hit into bad luck when his line drive headed through the box (one batter before Malcom's home run) glanced off McCarthy and fell into the glove of a diving Michalski near the bag at second. Leadoff hitter Claiborn, who had homered twice and drove in three runs in Saturday's elimination win over St. Joseph's, had a ten-game hitting streak come to an end but finished the year by reaching safely in his last 20 games when he drew Wallace's only walk with two out in the eighth. Malcom's home run allowed him to reach safely in the final 11 games of his career.

Despite losing three All-Americas, seven all-conference players and virtually all of its key pitchers (Eastern led the nation in ERA last year) from last year's national title team, Eastern was able to win its 11^th Little East Conference tournament championship this year and as many as 35 games in a season for the 17^th time. They were the most second-most wins in a season (behind last year's record 49) in the last 14 years.