Cortland: Mike Assmann (L, 7-5), Adam Brown (4), Michael Mahay (5), Brandon DeRosa (5), Todd DeGroat (6), Ed Southworth (8) and Andersen Gardner, Billy Ribeiro (Red Dragons: 40-10-1) Illinois Wesleyan: Jason Pankau (W, 11-2), Marty Roche (8), Joe Sweeney (9) and Mark McDermott (Titans: 31-21)
HR – Steve Nickel (COR), Casey McIntosh (IW), Jeff Grodecki 2 (IW) 3B – Kevin Jackson (COR), Kevin Sullivan (IW) 2B – Jason Simone (COR), Alex Coffey (COR), Brett Moore (IW), Zach Scott (IW), Mark McDermott (IW), Kraig Ladd (IW)
GRAND CHUTE, WIS. – The SUNY Cortland baseball team finished second nationally after splitting two games during the final day of the NCAA Division III World Series at Fox Cities Stadium. The Red Dragons opened the day by defeating Linfield College (Ore.), 12-9, but lost to Illinois Wesleyan University, 17-5, in the national championship game.
Cortland finishes the season 40-10-1 and is national runner-up for the second time in school history with a 4-2 record at the Series. The Red Dragons were making their 10th World Series appearance. Cortland finished second in 2005, also with a 4-2 mark, in addition to third-place showings in 1997 and 1998 and a fourth-place finish in 2007.
Illinois Wesleyan won the national title in its second World Series appearance. The Titans were 14-17 at one point during the season before eventually winning their conference title and NCAA regional crown to earn a World Series berth. They went 4-1 at the Series and finished the year with a 31-21 record.
Four Red Dragons were named to the World Series all-tournament team. Senior catcher Andersen Gardner (Fairport) batted .500 (10-for-20) with four home runs, a triple, a double, five walks and 14 RBI in six Series games. Senior third baseman Steve Nickel (Lake Ronkonkoma/Sachem North) hit .462 (12-for-26) with two homers, two triples, two walks and 12 RBI. Sophomore second baseman Matt June (Colonie) hit .444 (12-for-27) with two doubles, a triple, three walks and six RBI. Senior center fielder Khyle Dimino (Brighton) batted .423 (11-for-26) with a double, triple, homer, eight RBI and four steals. Dimino hit for the cycle in a win over Johns Hopkins during Day 3 of the tournament.
Cortland 12, Linfield 9
Cortland led 8-1 after four innings and held off a Linfield rally to defeat the Wildcats and avenge a 25-11 loss from the second day of the Series. Gardner homered, tripled, walked and drove in four runs. He hit an RBI triple in the third inning and hit a two-run homer as part of a six-run fourth inning. June was 4-for-4 with a walk in five plate appearances. He drove in three runs, including a two-run double in the fourth, and scored three times. Khyle Dimino went 4-for-5 with an RBI, two steals and three runs scored and senior Shawn Bailey (Webster/Webster Schroeder) was 2-for4 with a walk and three RBI.
Tyson Smith went 3-for-6 with two RBI and Cole Bixenman was 2-for-4 with a homer and three RBI for Linfield (37-13).
Junior Travis Ratliff (Levittown/Division Avenue) started for Cortland and pitched into the ninth inning for his ninth win in 10 decisions on the season. He allowed 12 hits and nine runs, struck out seven and walked five.
Cortland scored on a Khyle Dimino RBI single in the second and a Gardner RBI triple in the third to go up 2-0. The Red Dragons’ six-run fourth included a Bailey RBI single and an Adam Dimino (Honeoye Falls/Honeoye Falls-Lima) RBI single in addition to June’s two –run double and Gardner’s two-run homer.
Linfield put up a run in the fifth on a Kelson Brown homer and four in the sixth, three on Bixenman’s three-run roundtripper. Cortland responded with two runs in the sixth on a Gardner bases-loaded walk and a Nickel fielder’s choice grounder, then picked up a run in the seventh on a June RBI single and another in the eighth on a Bailey RBI double.
Linfield made things interesting with three runs in the ninth. The big hit was a two-run Smith double off reliever Brendan Hourihan (Yorktown Heights/Lakeland). Hourihan, however, induced two groundouts to end the game.
Illinois Wesleyan 17, Cortland 5
After scoring a combined 66 runs over its first five Series games, Cortland was held to five runs on nine hits by Illinois Wesleyan starter Jason Pankau and two relievers. Pankau, who won two games at the Series, held the Red Dragons to six hits and three runs, one earned, over seven and a third innings He struck out nine and walked two, and he finished the year 11-2.
Cortland took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first. Gardner reached on a two-out error and Nickel hit a two-run homer to left.
From that point, however, it was all Titans. Jeff Grodecki, the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player, finished the game 5-for-5 with two homers and three RBI. He hit a solo homer with two outs in the fourth, and his solo shot in the fourth started a four-run rally that put the Titans up 8-2. Grodecki also singled twice during Illinois Wesleyan’s nine-run fifth inning that put the game out of reach.
Mark McDermott went 4-for-4 with a walk, RBI and three runs scored and Kraig Ladd was 2-for-5 with three RBI and three runs scored. Casey McIntosh also drove in three runs and Kevin Sullivan was 2-for-4 with two RBI.
Cortland scored once in the seventh when senior John Zilnicki (Riverhead) singled and scored on a triple by senior Kevin Jackson (Wappingers Falls/Roy C. Ketcham). The Red Dragons added two in the ninth on an Alex Coffey (Hilton) RBI double and an RBI single by senior Damon Arnold (Wellsville). Jackson finished 2-for-4 as Cortland’s lone player with multiple hits. Mike Assmann (Auburn) started and suffered the loss. He allowed five runs, two earned, in three innings. He gave up four hits and one walk and struck out three.
"QUOTE"BOOK:
Cortland Head Coach Joe Brown:
"It was a mixed emotion day. We came out and had a competitive game with a very good Linfield College team. We then obviously ran into a buzzsaw in Illinois Wesleyan, who played super baseball and hit the ball all over the park. We didn’t have an answer, unfortunately. At the same time, it certainly doesn’t diminish what these young men and this team accomplished."
(on what he told the team after the title game) "I told all the returners to watch (the Illinois Wesleyan celebration), that this is an expectation we have here (at Cortland). It’s not some far-fetched imagination. It’s a realistic objective and goal. We’ve been extremely fortunate at Cortland to be at the World Series 10 times, and when these young men get home they’ll start working on next year."
Cortland Senior Third Baseman Steve Nickel:
(on hitting a homer and other at-bats vs. Jason Pankau) "I got on him in the first inning, it felt good, but he settled in and starting throwing up zeroes until later in the game and we couldn’t find it after that."
(on Jason Pankau) "He mixes up his pitches pretty well. He’s got some life to his fastball, and he’s got a pretty good changeup."
"It was a great experience. It was a great feeling to come in that first day (of practice), coming in out of the off-season, and this is what we fight for, like every team in the country. There’s no better feeling than to get here. It’s a great accomplishment. We’ve been great all year – we just didn’t have it on the last game.
Cortland Senior Catcher Andersen Gardner:
"I thought we were ready to go (after the win vs. Linfield). We just kind of ran into a wall."
(about his four years at Cortland) "It’s been life-changing…I had a couple of D-1 offers, and I’m glad I turned them down because my career here has just been unbelievable. To go to three World Series out of four – some people don’t even get to one in four years. It’s been one heck of a ride. It’s just sad it didn’t happen the way we wanted it to, but national runner-up is still pretty good out of however many colleges there are in D-3."
NOTEBOOK:
* Cortland reached the 40-win plateau for the fifth time in school history. The Red Dragons were 43-9-1 during their national runner-up season in 2005, finished 42-5 in 2008, 42-7 in 2007 and 40-5 in 1998.
*Major league pitcher Jarrod Washburn threw out the ceremonial first pitch before the Cortland-Linfield game, and Cortland senior catcher Andersen Gardner had the honor of catching the pitch. Washburn pitched in the Div. III World Series for Wisconsin-Oshkosh in 1994 and 1995, leading the Titans to the 1994 national title.
*Khyle Dimino’s stolen base in the second inning vs. Linfield was his school single-season record 36th of the season. The previous school record was 35 steals by Craig Kerner in 1999. Dimino stole another base later in the game and finished the season with 37 steals.
* Andersen Gardner’s RBI triple in the third inning vs. Linfield was his 21st career triple, tying the school record held by Craig Kerner from 1998-2000.
* Jason Simone recorded one hit in each game Tuesday and will bring a 24-game hitting streak into next season. The school record is 26 games by Craig Kerner in 1998. Kerner also ended his season with his hitting streak, but had it snapped in the first game of the 1999 season.
* Cortland advanced to the final day of the World Series for the fourth time in school history. In 1997 and 1998, the Red Dragons entered the final day 3-1 (similar to this year), but lost in the game prior to the title game and finished third. In 2005, under a different tournament format, Cortland lost its first game before winning four in a row. The Red Dragons then lost in the championship round to Wisconsin-Whitewater (Cortland needed two wins vs. Whitewater to win the title) and finished second in the nation.
2010 NCAA DIV. III WORLD SERIES - RESULTS
Friday, May 28
SUNY Cortland 9, Univ. of Wisconsin-Stevens Point 8 Linfield College (Ore.) 12, Univ. of Massachusetts-Boston 0 Heidelberg Univ. (Ohio) 3, Johns Hopkins University (Md.) 2 Illinois Wesleyan Univ. 7, Shenandoah Univ. (Va.) 5
Saturday, May 29
Univ. of Wisconsin-Stevens Point 13, Univ. of Massachusetts-Boston 3 (Eliminated) Johns Hopkins Univ. 7, Shenandoah Univ. 4 (Eliminated) Linfield College 25, SUNY Cortland 11 Illinois Wesleyan Univ. 4, Heidelberg Univ. 3
Sunday, May 30
SUNY Cortland 23, Johns Hopkins Univ. 8 (Eliminated) Heidelberg Univ. 8, Univ. of Wisconsin-Stevens Point 3 (Eliminated) Illinois Wesleyan Univ. 4, Linfield College 3
Monday, May 31
Linfield College 6, Heidelberg Univ. 4 (Eliminated) SUNY Cortland 11, Illinois Wesleyan Univ. 10
Tuesday, June 1
SUNY Cortland 12, Linfield College 9 (Eliminated) CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: Illinois Wesleyan 17, SUNY Cortland 5
Courtesy: SUNY Cortland Athletics
