Junior Nick Bunce connected on his third hit of the game in the bottom of the ninth inning with the bases-loaded to give The College at Brockport Baseball team a 4-3 walk-off victory over Oneonta Friday in the first round of the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) Tournament in Cortland.
The Golden Eagles (25-15) will play host Cortland at 1 pm Saturday in the semifinal round of the tournament as the Red Dragons won an 8-2 game over Plattsburgh in the tournament's opening game. Plattsburgh will face Oneonta in an elimination game at 10 am Saturday.
Oneonta (17-20) took an early lead against the Golden Eagles with single runs in the first and third innings. Senior
Tory Bouyea (Plattsburgh/Plattsburgh) hit a one-out RBI single in the first to knock in classmate
Kevin Knack (Ghent/Ichabod Crane), who led off the game with a base hit. In the second inning, freshman
Charlie MacDowell (Middletown/Minisink Valley) stole home after senior
Eric Wells (Athens, PA/Athens) got into a run down on an attempted steal of second base.
MacDowell hit a sacrifice fly to left field in the ninth to drive in
Rob Peluso (Rensselaer/Columbia) from third base to tie the game at 3-3 after Brockport had scored three runs in the seventh inning to take a 3-2 lead.
Kyle Tracy opened the bottom of the ninth with a single to right field and after Corey Booth walked, Mike Weakley laid down a sacrifice bunt to put both runners into scoring position. Jake Coleman was intentionally walked to load the bases and Bunce followed with a single to right field scoring Tracy and winning the game for the Golden Eagles.
Starter James Bardenett pitched into the ninth inning but did not figure in the decision. He allowed three earned runs and struck out four batters. Relief pitcher Justin McCarthy was credited with the victory to improve to 2-2 on the season.
Oneonta starter
Chris Tyson (Niskayuna/Niskayuna) pitched into the seventh inning before being lifted for freshman
Kyle Jordan (Levittown/Division). Tyson allowed six hits and three earned runs while striking out four batters. Jordan pitched a scoreless inning and-a-third before giving way to
Jim Hegmann (Middletown/Pine Bush) in the ninth. Hegmann was only able to record the one out before the winning run was scored.