CORTLAND, N.Y. – The Oswego State baseball team fell in a pair of games at nationally-ranked Cortland on the road Thursday afternoon. Oswego nearly completed a furious comeback in the day's first game and had an early lead in the nightcap before the Red Dragons were able to erase the deficit.

THE BASICS

• Game 1 Result: #24 Cortland 13, Oswego 10
• Game 2 Result: #24 Cortland 4, Oswego 2
• Location: Bob Wallace Field – Cortland, N.Y.
• Records: Cortland 24-9-1 (13-0 SUNYAC)  |  Oswego 22-9 (11-2 SUNYAC)

HOW IT HAPPENED
Game 1

• Cortland jumped out to a commanding 9-0 lead over the first two innings but the Lakers were not fazed, answering with eight runs of their own between the fourth and fifth frames. That 8-0 run by the Lakers was highlighted by a fifth-inning grand slam to right field by Mike Dellicarri. His homer came after a pair of singles from Rocco Leone and Paul Tammaro, and a walk from Ryan Enos.
• The squads traded a run apiece during the bottom of the sixth and top half of the seventh to keep it a one run margin in favor of the home team.
• Oswego tied the tilt in the eighth, capitalizing on a lead-off double by Enos. Cortland elected to give Dellicarri a free pass to reinitiate the force and make a double-play possible in the next at-bat.
• The Lakers answered with a sacrifice bunt to spoil that plan, as Lukas Olsson pushed Enos to third and Dellicarri into scoring position. With first base open, the Red Dragons chose to intentionally walk Brandon Nicholson to load the bases.
• A Casey Gruarin fielder's choice plated Enos to tie the game at 10-10 and put out Nicholson at second for the second out of the inning. Cortland was able to induce a pop-out for the final out and to keep the game tied 10-10.
• The Red Dragons then closed the scoring with a three-run eighth before retiring the Lakers in order in the ninth.
• Enos, Olsson, Dellicarri and Nicholson finished with two hits apiece, with Nicholson adding to Dellicarri and Enos' extra-base hits with a lead-off triple in the seventh.
• Dellicarri paced the squad with his four RBI while Casey Gruarin drove in three and Justin Troelstra plated two.
• Ronald Loomis suffered the loss in two innings of relief work while Jake Terrill had a solid long relief effort of 5.0 innings, holding Cortland to just three runs to allow the Laker comeback.

Game 2

• Oswego played a little long ball again in the second game, as Olsson knocked a two-run homer in the opening frame to put Oswego in control 2-0. Olsson drove in Tammaro, who led off with a hit by pitch.
• Cortland would get all it needed in the bottom half of the first, scoring three on three hits. The Red Dragons added an insurance tally in the sixth to put the game away.
• Oswego had a runner in scoring position in the fourth and fifth innings but were unable to tie the game. In the fourth, Nicholson blasted a one-out double to right center but was stranded. During the fifth, Leone tried to score from first on a two-out single by Ryan Enos, but was thrown out at the plate.
• Nick DeMarco went the distance on the mound for Oswego, allowing four runs while scattering seven hits and striking out seven. The senior is now 4-2 on the season.

WHAT'S NEXT

Oswego and Cortland will continue to watch the weather to decide when they will play the final game of the three-game series. The nine-inning contest will likely take place on either Friday or Saturday, depending on rain in the forecast.