The Panthers baseball team closed out the 2024 season Tuesday with a thrilling win over MSAC champion Finger Lakes Community College in the opener of one of their doubleheader. The Lakers took game two to split the doubleheader and the season series with the Panthers. Tompkins Cortland ends the year with a record of 6-30 overall and 6-18 in the Mid-State Athletic Conference. Finger Lakes is 31-15 overall and 18-3 in the MSAC, with two of those three conference losses coming to the Panthers.

Game One: Tompkins Cortland 7, Finger Lakes 6  (9 innings)

Finger Lakes took an early lead, but Tompkins Cortland starting pitcher Collin Schneider (Utica/Notre Dame H.S.) prevented the Lakers from any big innings and kept the Panthers within striking distance. After working five innings, Schneider left with the team trailing 6-0. While the Panthers had missed on chances in the early innings, they started to cash in in the bottom of the fifth.

Jason Winstanley (Lewiston/Lewiston-Porter H.S.) opened the bottom of the fifth with a single and moved to second when Frank Marra (Millstone Townships, N.J./Allentown H.S.) was hit by a pitch. Both came around to score, starting to cut into the Finger Lakes lead.

Austin Cotterill (Cortland/Cortland H.S.) took the mound in relief of Schneider in the sixth, and worked around three Finger Lakes hits without allowing a run. In the bottom of the frame, the Panthers took advantage of two Finger Lakes errors to score two more runs, making the score 6-4 heading to the seventh.

Cotterill put up another zero in the seventh, and in the bottom of the frame, Cody Sayre (Spencer/Spencer-Van Etten H.S. and Tim Bowerman (Spencerport/Spencerport H.S.) led off with back-to-back singles. Bradly Addicott (Trumansburg/Charles O. Dickerson H.S.) drove in Sayre to make the score 6-5, and with one out, Winstanley came through with a single to score Bowerman and tie the game at 6-6.

Heading to extra innings, Finger Lakes loaded the bases in the top of the eighth, but Cotterill induces a fly ball out to end the threat. The Panthers went down in order in the home half of the eighth, sending the game to the ninth. The first two Finger Lakes batters reach in the ninth, prompting another call to the bullpen. Talfourd Wynne (Philadelphia/Indian River H.S.) took over, and slammed the door on the Lakers with a strikeout and two fly balls.

Sayre led off the ninth with a single, and then stole second and third base. Bowerman reach first on a fielder's choice that failed to produce an out, and after a strikeout and intentional walk loaded the bases. With the infield pulled in Winstanley hit a grounder that the second baseman couldn't handle, allowing Sayre to score and the Panthers to walk off with the win.

Winstanley finished with two hits and three RBI to pace the Panthers offense.

Game Two: Finger Lakes 10, Tompkins Cortland 4 

Game two started with the Panthers taking a lead in the first on a double by Dan Mrowinski (Syracuse/Solvay H.S.) and a single by John Touchette (Tully/Tully H.S.). Wynne, starting game two on the mound after getting the win in game one, kept the Lakers off the board in the first two innings, but allowed two in the third. A scoreless fourth was followed by four in the fifth and two in the sixth, pushing the Lakers to an 8-1 lead.

The Lakers padded their lead with two in the seventh, providing enough cushion to withstand the Panthers rally for three runs in the bottom of the inning.

Eight of the nine Panthers in the starting lineup had a hit in game two, with Mrowinski leading the way with a pair of doubles.