Cortland baseball team. (Photo Source: Stephen Yang of The Cortland Voice).
The Cortland Purple Tigers (Section III Class A champions) ended their season after losing a close game against Averill Park (Section II Class A champions) in the sub-regional round of the Class A State Tournament Thursday evening.
The Tigers lost 2-3 after two extra innings were played at Onondaga Community College.
“We knew coming in here that this team (Averill Park) was going to be tough,” said Cortland head coach Ben Albright. “We knew that every opportunity we gave them, they would try to take advantage of it; and they were able to do just that.”
It was a tight game, with Cortland taking a 2-1 lead at the bottom of the fourth inning. Averill Park tied the game up 2-2 in the fifth, and gained the lead at the top of the ninth to end the game.
“The team (Cortland) did what we had to do,” said Cortland senior Tyler Blake. “They (Averill Park) just came up on top today.”
Here is a score breakdown of yesterday’s game:
Cortland was led by Tyler Blake (1 run & 2 hits), Caden Congdon (2 hits, 1 RBI & 1 strikeout thrown), Ethan Hay (1 run), Kooper Knabe (1 hit & 1 RBI), and Scott Hourigan (2 strikeouts thrown).
Averill Park was led by Michael Wormuth (1 hit), Alex Yash (2 hits), Stephen Koval (1 run & 2 hits), Nicholas Galuski (2 RBI’s), Hunter Willett (1 run), Matthew DeJulio (1 run & 1 hit), and Brady Mazzeo (6 strikeouts thrown).
“This whole season we’ve been able to battle,” said coach Albright. “These kids are relentless, and it speaks volume of the character of the kids. I am very proud of them. We came up one run short. We lost to a good team, but this group will always be able to say that they are sectional champs.”
With this loss, Cortland ended their season as Section III Class A champions along with an overall record of 20-3.
When asked about his thoughts on next year’s season, Cortland junior Andrew Partigianoni said, “I think we will still have a good team next year. I am so thankful that I got to play with all of these seniors. This is a really great group, but I am really looking forward to next year.”
“We do a lot of stuff in the winter,” added Partigianoni. “I feel like our program is really good. We are always working out or doing something. There are a lot of good leaders to carry us for next year.”
Averill Park will now go on to play the regional round of the state tournament aginst Massena (Section X Class A champions) at the East Side Recreation Park in Saratoga Springs this Saturday (June 4th) at 6pm.
Here are some photos of yesterday’s game between Cortland and Averill Park (photos provided by Stephen Yang of The Cortland Voice):
