LEESBURG, FLA. – New Paltz scored three times in the fifth to take the lead and Ryan Votypka held Cortland hitless over the final four and two thirds innings as the Hawks defeated the Red Dragons on Sunday, 4-3, in the third of three SUNYAC games between the teams.
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New Paltz won two of the three matchups and improved to 4-4-2 overall and 2-1 in the league. Cortland, playing the last game of its eight-game Florida trip, dropped to 14-3 overall and 1-2 in the conference. The Red Dragons are scheduled to host Ithaca in a non-league game on Tuesday at 3 p.m.
New Paltz grabbed a 1-0 lead in the first on a one-out Tyler Bell double and a Chris Moran RBI single. Cortland, however, took a 3-1 advantage in the third. With two outs, Justin Teague (North Syracuse/Cicero-North Syracuse) walked, Paul Dondero (East Islip) was hit by a pitch and Steven Figueroa (Bronx/St. Raymond's) hit a three-run homer off the top of the scoreboard in right center.
Steven Figueroa trots home after hitting a 3-run homer in the third inning (Photo by Michael Clock)
In the top of the fifth, New Paltz opened with a Taylor Anderson single and a Ryan Frost walk. Turner Parry (Syracuse/West Genesee) replaced starter Tanner Whiteman (Cazenovia) at that point and Nick DePietro laid down a bunt single, with a wild throw to first on the play allowing Anderson to score while putting runners on second and third.
Cortland elected to intentionally walk Bell to load the bases, and the strategy looked like it might pay off when Parry struck out the next two batters. However, Jake Williams lined a single up the middle to drive in the tying and go-ahead run.
From that point, the game became a pitching duel between Votypka and Parry. Votypka was New Paltz's second reliever after Christian Huertas, the starter, and Brian LoRusso, who faced just one batter. Votypka entered with runners on first and second and one out in the bottom of the fifth and got a fielder's choice force out and a strikeout to keep the Hawks in the lead.
Votypka did not allow a hit or run the rest of the way, although he did walk two and hit one batter. Since Huertas didn't go five innings, Votypka was awarded the win as the Hawks' most effective reliever. Cortland put runners on first and second with one out in the seventh on a Teague walk and Dondero hit-by-pitch, but a lineout and fly out ended the inning. In the ninth, Nick Hart (Fredonia) walked with one out and went to second with two outs on a wild pitch before Votypka got the last batter to fly out.
Parry, after allowing the Williams two-run single in the fifth, retired the final 13 batters he faced. He finished with five innings of two-hit ball with six strikeouts, one walk and one run allowed but still suffered the loss to drop to 1-1 on the season.
Moran finished 2-for-4 and Bell was 1-for-3 with a walk for New Paltz. Teague finished 1-for-1 with two walks and Figueroa was 1-for-3 with his three-run homer for the Red Dragons.
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