The SUNY Oneonta baseball team fell at home to Elmira College today 11-4.  The loss dropped the Red Dragons to 7-23 overall while the Soaring Eagles picked up its third win of the season.
 
Elmira scored three runs in the top of the first inning, as they took advantage of a couple of errors by the Red Dragons.  The Soaring Eagles loaded the bases with no outs due to a pair of singles and a walk.  Dylan Bellinger then reached on a fielder's choice with Oneonta getting the out at second base, but the relay throw was short and got by the first baseman allowing Bellinger to go to second base as a second run scored on the play.
 
Bellinger came in with the third run after advancing to third on a passed ball and came in to score on the throw from the catcher that went into left field.  Bellinger cracked his second home run of the year in the third inning to give Elmira a 4-0 lead.
 
The Soaring Eagles broke the game wide open with six runs in the fifth inning.  Elmira loaded the bases again before three straight walks by relief pitcher RJ Lyman (Mohegan Lake/Walter Panas) forced in the first three runs of the inning.  Then final three runs came via a sacrifice fly and an RBI single by Mike Burghardt that drove in a pair of runs.
 
Senior Mike Cruz (Levittown/Division Avenue) drove the first pitch he saw in the sixth inning over the left field fence to put Oneonta on the scoreboard.  It was Cruz's team-leading third home run of the season, as he finished with two hits in the game.
 
Back-to-back singles by Jack Burns (Endicott/Union Endicott ) and LJ Gizzarelli (Newburgh/Newburgh Free Academy) gave the Red Dragons runners at first and second with one out.  Both players moved up one base on a wild pitch before Burns scored on an error by the Elmira third baseman.
 
The Soaring Eagles added a single run in the seventh while the Red Dragons scored single runs in the eighth and ninth innings for the final.
 
Davis Salzman pitched six innings for Elmira and picked up his first win of the season while freshman James McCarty (Stony Brook/Chaminade) was hit with the loss.
 
Oneonta will host Mount St. Mary College tomorrow at Red Dragon Field beginning at 4pm.