There was plenty of drama at Gutchess Lumber Sports Complex on a wet Thursday as the Panthers baseball team rallied for two walk-off wins over Corning, 12-11 and 9-8. Tompkins Cortland has now won three straight to improve to 3-11 overall and 3-7 in the West Division. Corning falls to 1-22 overall and 0-20 in division.
Game One: Tompkins Cortland 12, Corning 11
Corning opened the game by taking advantage of some sloppy defense to score three runs in the first inning. The Panthers cut into the lead with two in the second and then tied the score with a run in the fourth. A three-run fifth inning gave Tompkins Cortland its first lead, but Corning responded with three in the sixth to tie the game. Heading into the seventh tied at 6-6, Corning broke out with five runs in the top of the inning, putting the Red Barons just three outs away from the win.
In the bottom of the seventh, Frank Marra (Millstone Township, N.J./Allentown), Kannon VanDuzer (Sayre, Pa./Sayre Area H.S.), and Dan Mrowinski (Syracuse/Solvay H.S.) opened with consecutive singles, scoring one run to make it 11-7. After an out, a pair of walks drove in another run and left the bases loaded. A strike out brought the Panthers to their last out, still trailing 11-8. With Nazier Smith (Williamsport, Pa./St. John Neumann Regional Academy) batting, a wild pitch scored one run and moved the runners to second and third. Smith delivered with a two-run double, tying the game at 11-11. Smith stole third while Max Dydynski (Nichols/Tioga H.S.) was at bat working a walk and bringing Marra back to the plate. Before Marra could end the game with a hit, Smith finished his highlight-reel inning by breaking for home on a delayed steal, beating the return throw from the pitcher and siding in with the game-winning run and capping one of the biggest last-inning comebacks in program history.
It wasn't just the last inning where Smith sparkled. The center fielder finished the game with three doubles, three RBI and two runs scored. Marra also went 3-for-4, scoring two runs and driving in two more. Mrowinski was 2-for-4 and Cody Sayre (Spencer/Spencer-Van Etten H.S.) scored three runs and had a triple.
Ryoma Tada (Tokyo, Japan/Kosei Gakuen) came on in relief and earned the win for the second straight game. Colin Schneider (Utica/Notre Dame H.S.) stated and allowed just one earned run while striking out four over five innings before Tada worked the final two.
Game Two: Tompkins Cortland 9, Corning 8 (8 innings)
With a heavy mist/light rain continuing to fall, the nightcap had its own share of comebacks. Corning led 2-0 in the middle of the second inning, but the Panthers tied it in the bottom. The Red Barons scored a single run in the third to regain the lead, and then scored four times in the fifth to lead 7-2. Like in the first game, what seemed like a big lead wasn't big enough for the visitors, because the Panthers rallied with five runs in the bottom of the inning to tie the score at 7-7 heading into the sixth. Each teams score once in the sixth, and after a scoreless seventh, the game went to extra innings.
With Cam Scanlan (Auburn/Auburn H.S.) continuing to pitch well after coming on in relief in the fifth inning, the Panthers worked around a pair of baserunners to hold the Red Barons off the scoreboard in the top of the eighth.
Sayre started the bottom of the inning by working a full-count walk, and then made a great base-running play by tagging up and moving to second on a fly ball to right field by Smith. A passed ball moved Sayre to third, and Jason Winstanley (Lewiston/Lewiston Porter H.S.) brought him home when he laced a ground ball over the first-base bag and down the right-field line.
Winstanley, who entered the game as a pinch hitter and then stayed in the game, finished 2-for-2 with a walk, two runs scored, and the game-winning RBI. Noboru Shiohara (Tokyo, Japan/Dokkyo Saitama) also had two hits and VanDuzer and Sayre each had two RBI.
Looking ahead
The Panthers and Red Barons play again on Saturday, this time in Corning. The doubleheader starts at noon.