The baseball team had its 17-game winning streak snapped at the hands of No. 4 SUNY-Cortland today, falling 9–5 to the Red Dragons at Freeman Field.  

Junior Adam Brown got the start for the Blue and Gold and gave up eight runs over 3.2 innings. Brown game up eight hits, striking out three and walking two, before being relieved by sophomore right-hander Tom Fishback.

Fishback went 3.1 innings surrendering three hits and a run while striking out two and walking two. Fishback said he had to try to pitch well without having a long time to warm up.

“I tried to get us back in the game and hold them to as few runs as possible,” Fishback said. “I had to get warmed up quick and did the best I could to hit my spots and mix up pitches.”

Despite good relief efforts from Fishback, and juniors Pete MacDaniel and Bryan Gardner, Cortland did too much damage in the early innings.

Cortland junior catcher Mike Zaccardo belted two two-run home runs in the game, the first in the first inning and the other in the third.

While the Red Dragons jumped all over the ball in the early innings, the South Hill squad took a little longer to get their bats hot. Though the Bombers’ 13 hits surpassed Cortland’s 11, it was too little too late.

Junior catcher Drew Ash had two hits and two runs batted in while senior Rob Raux had three hits to total 499 in his career. Ash said the team had to get over some early-inning jitters before they were able to get some hits.

“The biggest problem was that we were a little anxious,” Ash said. “Everyone was a little too excited … and that got the best of us for the first couple of innings.”

The Blue and Gold did not get their first hits until the bottom of the fourth inning when seniors Eric Ferguson, Shane Wolf and Raux strung together three consecutive singles.

Head Coach George Valesente said Cortland stayed one step of ahead of the Bombers and though they came close, the Blue and Gold never quite battled all the way back.

“We were only one or two hits away from making this a ballgame,” Valesente said. “I’m proud of our guys. We battled and came back and showed some good character. Hopefully that will carry us.”

The South Hill squad still has three weeks left in the season and currently stand at 20–7 over all and 12–0 in the Empire 8.

The next game for the Bombers is at 1 p.m. Saturday against Empire 8 rival St. John Fisher College in Pittsfield, N.Y.