CORTLAND, N.Y. — The No. 16/19 nationally ranked Endicott baseball team split a pair of games against No. 8/14 Cortland (7-10) and St. John Fisher (18-8) on Saturday to advance to the championship round of the NCAA Tournament - SUNY Cortland Regional.
Endicott will face Cortland tomorrow at 9 AM. The Gulls will need to win twice in order to advance to the Super Regionals, while the undefeated Red Dragons need one win to claim the regional championship.
GAME ONE: No. 8/14 Cortland 10, No. 16/19 Endicott 7
WP (1-0): Liam Krasney (Greenville, N.Y.) — 2 2/3 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K
LP (5-3): Max Tarlin (Sharon, Mass.) — 2 1/3 IP, 5 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 1 BB, 2 K
Trailing 7-5 in the top of the eighth inning, Cortland rallied for five runs via a two-run double and a three-run homer to eventually push its record to 2-0 in the tournament.
Endicott amassed a 7-2 advantage through three innings of play before the Red Dragons completed the comeback.
Highlighting the Gulls' offense were John Mulready (Peabody, Mass.), Kyle Grabowski (Westfield, Mass.), and Caleb Shpur (East Canaan, Conn.) as the trio was mostly responsible for Endicott's six-run third inning.
Mulready jumpstarted the rally with a game-tying RBI double down the left field line.
He later scored on a passed ball to make it 3-2 before Grabowski and Shpur drove in a pair of runs via a homer to left and a double to right center, respectively.
GAME TWO: Endicott 18, St. John Fisher 8
WP (4-0): Alexander Zaiser (Naples, Fla.) — 5 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 4 K
LP (3-3): Logan Press (Clay, N.Y.) — 1 IP, 2 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 0 K
Endicott exploded for seven runs in the seventh inning to rally past St. John Fisher and earn its way into the championship round of the regional.
Joseph Millar (Lake Hopatcong, N.J.) punctuated the comeback with a grand slam to deep right field to put the Gulls ahead for good at 13-8.
Dylan Pacheco (Dartmouth, Mass.) also had a two-run triple in the eighth (16-8), while Nickolas Perkins (Nashua, N.H.) capped the scoring in the contest with an RBI double to left center in the ninth.
Zaiser was just as important to the come-from-behind victory for the Gulls as the graduate student not only stymied the Cardinals for five innings, but also saved Endicott's bullpen headed into tomorrow's regional championship with the potential for two games to be played.
BEYOND THE BOX SCORES
- Endicott scored an NCAA Tournament program record 18 runs against St. John Fisher.
- The Gulls' 18 runs scored today is tied for the third-most this season.
WHAT'S NEXT
No. 16/19 Endicott (38-8) will face host No. 8/14 Cortland (35-10) tomorrow at 9 AM.
The Gulls will need to win twice in order to advance to the Super Regionals, while the undefeated Red Dragons need one win to claim the regional championship.
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(Photo Credit - Endicott Athletic Communications)
