The air might have been cold Thursday in Binghamton, but the bats were sizzling hot as the Panthers set several offensive records with a sweep of SUNY Broome, 26-3 and 15-1. The wins move Tompkins Cortland's record to 9-9 overall and 5-3 in Region III West Division play. Broome drops to 2-14 overall and 1-11 in West Division.
Tompkins Cortland 26, Broome 3 (5 innings)
It took a little while to get things going, but once they did, the Panthers were nearly unstoppable. Broome scored the game's first two runs with a pair in the first inning. The 2-0 lead lasted until the third, and then it evaporated quickly.
The Panthers scored 11 runs in the third, 4 in the fourth, and 11 more in the fifth. The 26 runs is the most the Panthers have ever scored in a single game – and it came in game shortened to just five innings. Along the way, the team cracked 25 hits, also a team record, and had 21 RBI, yet another new record. Eleven different Panthers had at least one hit, at least one RBI and scored at least one run.
Brandon Grant (Homer/Homer H.S.) led the team with four hits, including a double, while driving in three runs and scoring three more. Joseph Tummino (Homer/Homer H.S.) and Ryan Ballard (Rochester/Greece Athena H.S.) each had three hits and Alex Babcock (Cortland/Cortland H.S.), Austin Kulas (Moravia/Moravia H.S.), and Austin Skinner (Groton/Groton H.S.) joined Grant with three RBI each.
Tummino earned the win on the mound, allowing just two unearned runs over four innings of work.
Tompkins Cortland 15, Broome 1 (5 innings)
Things kept rolling in game two as the Panthers scored 15 times to make it a new-record 41 runs for the doubleheader. The team rapped out 17 hits and scored three times in the second, four times in the third, six in the fourth, and two more in the fifth. Tummino, Grant, Ethan Buckley (Bath/Haverling H.S.), and Daniel Santiago (Newburgh/Newburgh Academy) each recorded three hits in game two, with Tummino counting two RBI and two doubles on his stat line. Kulas ripped another double while driving in two and scoring three times, and Babcock added a two-bagger.
Peter Miller (Fayetteville/Fayetteville-Manlius H.S.) earned his first collegiate win on the mound, tossing a complete game and allowing just one run on four hits.
Looking ahead
This weekend the Panthers and Onondaga Community College square off for a pair of doubleheaders. The teams will play Saturday in Dryden before heading to Syracuse for Sunday's games.