Opening Region III West Division play, the Panthers swept a doubleheader from Jamestown Community College Thursday, 7-3 and 11-9. Tompkins Cortland has now won four straight to even its overall record at 6-6. Jamestown drops to 1-4 overall. It was also the West Division opener for the Jayhawks.
Tompkins Cortland 7, Jamestown 3
Ethan Buckley (Bath/Haverling H.S.) took the ball in game one in his first outing since throwing a no-hitter last week. Buckley gave up a run in the first, but the offense took advantage of some sloppy play by Jamestown to tie the score in the bottom of the first. As Buckley settled down, Jamestown's pitching unraveled in the third, walking four and hitting another batter as the Panthers plated five runs. Two runs in the fifth chased Buckley, but Joey Kench (West Henrietta/Rush-Henrietta H.S.) came in and shut the door. The Panthers added another insurance run in the sixth before Kench closed out the game with a scoreless seventh.
Buckley finished with the win after throwing 5.2 innings, allowing three runs on four hits while striking out six. Kench picked up his second save of the year by not allowing a hit over 1.1 innings.
Brandon Grant (Homer/Homer H.S.) led the nine-hit attack by going 3-for-3 with three RBI and a double. Joseph Tummino (Homer/Homer H.S.) was 2-for-3.
Tompkins Cortland 11, Jamestown 9 (5 innings – darkness)
The nightcap was a slow-moving game, so slow that it had to be called due to darkness in the fifth inning. Despite the shortened number of innings, the two teams combined for 17 hits, 15 walks, and 5 hit batters. The Jayhawks opened the scoring with two runs in the top of the first, but the Panthers came back with seven runs in the bottom of the first, with Ryan Foody (Tully/Tully H.S.) and Shane Cuevas (Montgomery/Valley H.S.) each delivering two RBI. A single run in the second stretched the lead to 8-2 and three more in the third made it 11-2. Jamestown rallied with six in the top of the fourth and a single run in the fifth, but after the Panthers first two hitters in the bottom of the fifth singled, and with daylight quickly fading, the umpires decided to stop the game, giving Tompkins Cortland the 11-9 win.
The Panthers had more hits than outs, 13 to 12. Daniel Santiago (Newburgh/Newburgh Free Academy) and Austin Kulas (Moravia/Moravia H.S.) each had three hits and one RBI and Buckley and Grant each had two hits. Hyeon Ho Cho (Asan-si, South Korea/Sekwang H.S.) earned the win on the mound.
Looking ahead
The Panthers host Niagara County Community College Saturday for a doubleheader starting at 1 p.m.