By: Zachary Harnischfeger
CORTLAND, NY-- The Brockport Golden Eagles baseball team came into the game looking to extend their winning streak to five games and stay undefeated in the SUNYAC. After a back-and-forth game, Cortland rallied in the ninth to defeat the Golden Eagles 5-4.
"We handed them a lot," Brockport head coach Justin Beach said. "We need to do a better job, especially against a good team if you give them opportunities they're going to find ways to win. We made it pretty hard for ourselves with free bases whether it was hit-by pitches or walks, even a balk and wild pitches, not clean baseball that we need to clean up for tomorrow."
The Red Dragons got the scoring started in the bottom of the second inning. Right fielder Adam Mieczkowski and catcher Kameron Hartenstein started off the inning with back-to-back singles. Center fielder Chris Bonacci then singled and drove in Mieczkowski to give Cortland the 1-0 lead.
The Golden Eagles were held scoreless through four innings. In the top of the fifth, Brockport third basemen Nick Mahar blasted a solo home run to right field, his first homer of the season, to tie the game at one apiece.
"I pieced up the curveball pretty well first at-bat," Mahar said. "I was sitting fastball, I wanted to be on time for it and he threw it somewhere over the plate I could handle. Good things happen when I do my approach right. It felt good. I'm happy I got on the board."
Two batters later, after a Steven Ciancio single and a sacrifice bunt by shortstop Logan Wing moved Ciancio to second, center fielder Josh Indek brought home Ciancio on an RBI single to give Brockport the 2-1 lead. The Red Dragons would respond right back.
The Red Dragons responded in the bottom of the fifth after first basemen Nolan Smith tied the game at two with a solo home run, his second homer of the season.
In the top of the seventh, Brockport scratched across two more runs after a throwing error by relief pitcher Matthew Nochowitz. The error plated Mahar and Ciancio. This gave Brockport a 4-2 lead.
"The throw to the catcher from a pitcher is the hardest throw to make in a game," Ciancio said. "There's so much pressure to get it to the plate and he blew the through and then didn't cover home plate, so I kept running."
In the bottom of the seventh, after a lead-off single by Smith and a walk by designated hitter JJ Delawder, Mieczkowski doubled and drove in Smith and Delawder to tie the game at four apiece.
In the bottom of the ninth, Mieczkowski hit a walk-off RBI single, plating Danny Jackson, to give Cortland the 5-4 victory.
Pitcher Ryan Peters got the start for the Golden Eagles, tossing five innings allowing two earned runs on seven hits while walking two and striking out four.
Nick Mahar knows that the team has to do the little things right in order to come back and win the series over Cortland.
"We have to eliminate the free basis and do the little things right," Mahar said. We have to make plays behind our pitchers and battle at the plate. Just be a dog, that is one of our mantras we go by. We just want to put the ball in play and good things will happen. We have to play Brockport baseball."
The Golden Eagles will look to try and win the series as they take on the Cortland Red Dragons in a doubleheader tomorrow starting at Noon.