LEXINGTON, S.C. — No. 20 Marietta College scored four runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to come from behind and defeat No. 17 SUNT Cortland by the score of 7-4 Friday (March 10) afternoon. The Pioneers improve to 7-4 on the season, while the Red Dragons fall to 5-5 overall.
Marietta will be looking for the series sweep Saturday (March 11) when the two teams face off at 12:00 p.m.
Brett Carson (Ashville, Ohio/Teays Valley) staked the Etta Express to a three-run lead with a towering home run to right field.
Nick Bonnizzio (Hudson, Ohio/Twinsburg) and
Alex Richter (Carmel, Ind./Carmel) both worked two-out walks ahead of Carson's bomb.
Cortland manufactured a run in the fourth inning when Chris Bonacci led off with a single and Matthew Krafft walked. Bonacci tagged up and moved to third on a flyout to right and scored on a ground out off the bat of Mat Bruno.
The Red Dragons evened the score in the sixth when Krafft walked and Dylan Mackenzie homered to left.
Cortland grabbed its first lead of the day in the seventh when the leadoff hitter, Nick Chemotti, was beaned. Jon Munoz ran for Chemotti and stole second. He then moved to third on a passed ball and scored on a line drive single from Kameron Hartenstein.
Control problems plagued the Red Dragon pitchers again in the Pioneer eighth.
Ben Kaplin (Louisville, Ky./Ballard) led off with a line drive single off the leg of Cortland pitcher Liam Krasney. Krasney was forced to leave the game and was relieved by Shane Van Dam.
Cole Rieman (West Chester, Ohio/Archbishop Moeller) ran for Kaplin at first and moved into scoring position on a sac bunt from Bonnizzio. Richter ripped a triple over the first bag and into the rightfield corner scoring Rieman.
Carson was intentionally walked and stole second leading the Red Dragons to intentionally walk
Ty Davis (Springboro, Ohio/Springboro) to load the bases. A Van Dam wild pitch scored Richter and then
Cole Yeager (Pittsburgh, Pa./Penn Hills) walked reloading the bases. A second wild pitch allowed Carson to score.
Kail Hill (Marietta, Ohio/Marietta) worked a walk to load the bases yet again and cause Cortland to go to the bullpen again.
Tommy Lynch took over on the mound and promptly beaned
CJ Elias (Coraopolis, Pa./Moon Area) forcing Davis in with the fourth run of the inning.
Carson retired all three batters he faced in the ninth, including two by strikeout, to earn his first save of the season.
Jared Bees (Pittsburgh, Pa./Eden Christian) (1-0) earned his first career win with 2.0 inning of one-hit relief. Bees struck out three.
Gino Sabatine (Alliance, Ohio/West Branch) started on the mound for the Pioneers and worked 5.1 innings. He gave up three runs on four hits with two walks and five strikeouts.
Josh Pedersen (Cincinnati, Ohio/Anderson) and
Nick Kumor (Uniontown, Pa./Laurel Highlands) each threw one third of an inning before Bees took over.
Anthony Fusco started for Cortland and pitched 3.0 innings. He gave up three runs on two hits with four walks and two strikeouts. Mikey Wandell worked 1.0 scoreless inning before turning the ball over to Krasney. Krasney was charged with one run on one hit in 3.0 innings. He struck out three.
Van dam (1-1) took the loss. He worked two thirds of an inning and allowed three runs on one hit with four walks and a strikeout.
Davis was the lone Pioneer hitter with two hits in the game. Carson had the three-run homer and Richter the RBI triple.
Bonacci had two hits in the game, while Mackenzie had the home run and Dylan Tierney doubled.
Fans can follow all the Etta Express all year long at
pioneers.marietta.edu. You can also follow the Pioneers on Facebook at
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