Needing a bounce-back performance after dropping the opener against Finger Lakes Community College Tuesday, Joseph Tummino (Homer/Homer H.S.) stepped up to the challenge and delivered both on the mound and at the plate, helping the Panthers to a split with the Lakers. Finger Lakes won game on 6-1 and the Panthers took game two 4-2. Tompkins Cortland is now 11-11 overall and 7-5 in West Division play. Finger Lakes is 20-15 overall and 10-4 in West Division.
Finger Lakes 6, Tompkins Cortland 1
The Panthers were held hitless until the fourth inning in game one, and by that time, Finger Lakes had taken a 3-0 lead. In the fourth, Tummino stroked a one-out triple, snapping a string of eight straight Panthers to be retired, including six by strikeout. A wild pitch brought Tummino in to score, cutting the deficit to 4-1. While the Lakers added two more runs in the fifth, the Panthers again went into a slump with seven straight batters set down. Alex Babcock (Cortland/Cortland H.S.) recorded just the team's second hit of the game in the sixth inning, a one-out double, but was stranded. A 1-2-3 seventh made the final 6-1.
Tummino and Babcock were the only Panthers to reach base in game one, with Tummino getting on base each time at the plate, thanks to a triple, a walk, and an error. Babcock went 1-for-3 with his double.
Ethan Buckley (Bath/Haverling H.S.) took the loss on mound, dropping his record to 3-2 on the year.
Tompkins Cortland 4, Finger Lakes 2
Needing a spark in game two, the Panthers got just that in the first. With one out, Babcock singled and Tummino walked. After a second out, Austin Kulas (Moravia/Moravia H.S.) came through in the clutch with two-run double. Daniel Santiago (Newburgh/Newburgh Free Academy) followed with a single, giving the Panthers more hits in the first inning than they had in all of game one, but Kulas was thrown out trying to score, leaving the lead at 2-0.
Tummino took the mound for the Panthers, and after allowing a first-inning homer, kept the Lakers at bay over the next three innings, including working out of a bases-loaded jam in the third. In the fifth the Panthers added a run, with Isaiah Reyes (Tonawanda/Kenmore East H.S.) getting a single, moving to second on a sacrifice, to third on a groundout, and then scoring on a wild pitch. The Lakers answered with a run in the bottom of the fifth, but the Panthers kept the lead going into the final two frames. Neither team could score in the sixth, but Shane Cuevas (Montgomery/Valley H.S.) doubled with two outs in the seventh, stole second, and then scored an insurance run when Babcock singled. Joey Kench (West Henrietta/Rush-Henrietta H.S.) worked around a leadoff single in the bottom of the seventh to record his third save of the year.
Babcock led the team's seven-hit attack by going 2-for-4 with one RBI. Kulas was 1-for-3 with two RBI.
Tummino went 1-for-3 with a run scored at the plate, and also threw six solid innings. He allowed two runs on five hits, striking out three to earn his second win of the year.
Looking ahead
The Panthers and Lakers are scheduled to meet again Thursday in Dryden.