BB: SUNYAC

[Hot Rod Runnin]

Is this going to be another year where we all sit here and talk about how Cortland isn't going to win and come up with all these reasons why and then come May  they are sitting atop the Regional thrown?

For all the Cortland haters, you just need to come to the realization that they are the best team in this Region. Too much time is being spent bashing them. Joe Brown has that team prepared every year, it seems as though nothing phases them. Oneonta can challenge them, maybe, with Filak on the mound, but then again Cortland did knock him around last year.

I will say that I think too much is being made of this Getzke to Cortland issue...IT doesnt seem to me that he was very good when it counted for Brockport, and if Corltand reallly has all these great players, where in the heck is Getzke going to play Having never been aournd him I can't comment, maybe he has some outstanding leadership qualities.

I mean the conference looks very top heavy with Cortland and Oneonta standing out...The bottom half of the conference looks downright awful. I even think that the NEw Paltzs, Oswegos, Brockports and Plattsburghs are going to struggle to post records much better than 500. It looks that bleak for some of these teams.

[BaseballEliteNY]

Gentzke is a solid arm to have either in the rotation or in the bullpen for Cortland. He put up solid numbers as a sophomore and especially with all the talk about Cortland having pitching staff issues. I am not saying Gentzke is the solution by any means, but what I am trying to get at is that he is a another peice of the puzzle for Cortland. There are other pitchers that were brought in as well. A left handed transfer from a 'division 1' school, a junior college right handed transfer, Adam Brown from Ithaca. All together, I don't see Cortland having that much of an issue with there staff as we make it seem. There are always years that see players step up, pitchers coming out of no where to light up the gun and post big numbers. I believe we will see a few players like this from Cortland. Now if we can only get some names to go with all these transfers...

Filak did get hit around by Cortland, I don't see him shutting down that huge line up. If I were Oneonta, I would save Filak and throw him against Oswego rather than Cortland (they play Cortland on Sat 4/17 and Oswego on Sun 4/18).

As for the other teams I don't see them being very competitive. Each team has a few legit ball players but not much support to go with that. The final 2 spots for the SUNYAC tournament seem to be up for grabs, I think this may be the year that we see a New Paltz or Fredonia in the SUNYAC Tournament.

[Ralph Turner]

Rochester??  how and the heck are they in the mix?  They can't win conference tournament games, so a regional bid is certainly a big longshot.  I like Oneonta a lot on the mound, Dave Filak is really good.  Cortland will have three players at each position that could start somewhere else, as usual.  I will stick with John Mcgraw's analysis on here, very informative.  Sleeper pick, St. John Fisher.  Although it is an NCAA rule that Ithaca gets a pool B bid regardless of record (LOL), St. John Fisher returns most of their team and they have some weapons.

U of R... yikes.

This may be an interesting year for Pool B.  Let's see how many Pool B bids the NCAA has allocated.  The UMAC converts a Pool B bid into Pool A next year.

[scuba16]

I think Cortland wins the Sunyac easily and has got to be 1 of the favorites to win the NY region!!!
Reasons:
1. Its gonna take a pretty good pitcher, pitching his balls off to shut down Cortland's Offense for 9 innings...
2. The above scenario will need to be accompanied by the same team scoring a few runs, and Cortland will have 3-4 guys tossing it 88-92!!!! We all know changing speeds and location are the hallmark of a great pitcher but Velocity at the D-3 level eliminates 5-6 of the weaker hitters on the weaker teams!!! That leaves you 2-3 guys that need to have great offensive games in order for you to win!
3. Cortland has won for the past 17yrs and they know how to win!
Side note: Cortland is hosting the Regional this yr at Falcon Park so it will be interesting to see who gets the Pool B bid as IC won't be a shoe in for it! IC will have to have a pretty good yr to grab it this yr!!! Might be the 1st yr IC doesnt make the NY regional in a long time!!!

[Bigflyguy2009]

Dont sleep on Brockport this year. New pitching staff with some good arms and bats transfering in as well as many returners comming back. Meola,zaccardo, zimmerman, wroboliski (oswego) transfering in, and mccormick comming back shows promise for thier offense. Suprise will be from the pitching staff a few transfers to fill in the innings of shannon from last year, along with Joy,Locke and Williamson returning.Should be an intresting year in the SUNYAC. Best of luck to all.

[John McGraw]

If any Cortland fans are interested, the team's roster is now posted online. The Division-I transfers mentioned in the SUNYAC capsule of the NY Region preview are Mike Weingarten from St. Bonaventure and Richie Morris from Central Connecticut State.

[Kski]

Just wanted to introduce myself to the board.  I have been following the posts for about three years, and now that I am no longer playing in the SUNYAC I still want to keep up with the events going on in the conference and around the New York region.  I'm a graduate of Plattsburgh State, and as such I will be following them closely.  Being part of the SUNYAC for the past 5 years (1 of those years at Cortland, and the other 4 at Plattsburgh) has been a great experience and now I have to follow the action in any way that I can.  From what I have seen, everyone posts on what they know, and that is all I plan on doing.

It goes without saying that Cortland is the favorite this year to win the conference.  Coach Brown knows how to prepare his team to compete at even the highest level of division III baseball.  I can definitely see him improving the team's defense, especially in the infield.  If history has shown anything, it's that other teams will have their hands full in stopping Cortland from crossing the plate.  They will be at, or near the top of the conference this year.  Other teams in the conference might feel a little better about not seeing Tone any more, but rest assured that the pitching staff at Cstate will be deep and diverse.  It always is.

Plattsburgh will be very young, but they will be full of surprises.  They lost a lot of key contributors last year, especially at the plate.  Coach Doorey has proved that he knows how to get to the post-season by grinding out close games.  He built Plattsburgh's program from scratch and has made it to the SUNYAC Tournament every year since the reestablishment of the program.  The team knows this and Coach Doorey will make sure that his team is prepared for the season.  The pitching staff is young, but Dan Tracy and Matt O'Leary have proven themselves to be both though and effective.  Both ate up a lot of innings last season with good results.  Other newcomers will have to show a lot of guts on the mound to keep Plattsburgh in contention this year.  Tory Bouyea, Andy Gooch, and Pat Shaughnessy will produce good numbers at the plate.  Matt Burns, the only true 4-year player on the team, will have to provide leadership.  He improved every year and hopefully he will up his numbers again this year. 

Brockport always seems to put out a good team.  I think it's safe to say that they will be in contention this year, but not quite as strong as they were last year.

Fredonia showed some promise after last season.  Hopefully they can come back this year and give other teams a run, and maybe mix up the SUNYAC Tournament picture again.

Oneonta has a lot to gain from last season.  Filak is a force to be reckoned with on the mound, especially at this level, but when he gets tired, other teams benefit because he loses a lot of control.  I'll be anxious to see if his conditioning has improved.  I anticipate those returning from last years team will not settle for anything less than making it to the SUNYAC's. 

New Paltz has struggled and honestly I cannot say that that other teams view them as a threat.   Just the same, other teams can't walk in thinking they are going to be handed 2 games.  They did take down Fredonia and Plattsburgh last year, but they will need to come in with some big surprises this year to do some more damage.  I wouldn't mind seeing them take some big teams down this year.  Realistically, this might not be possible, but it would be something new to talk about.   

I don't know much about Oswego.  It seems as though they will be fighting a tough up-hill battle to prove themselves this year.

I'm not sure how I will handle being a spectator, but having a history in the SUNYAC will make this season enjoyable, no matter what the outcome! -KK

[Ralph Turner]

+1!  Always glad to have former players on the boards.

Please contribute often.

[Kski]

Weather conditions are cooperating in the far Northeast.  Chip Cummings field is free of snow and ice, which is extremely uncommon in the area.  Fingers crossed for good weather the rest of the way.  Hope the weather is cooperating in all other areas.

[jdex]

Cortland 7-0 over N.C. Wesleyan on Friday in first of three weekend games in NC .........

[BaseballEliteNY]

Well Cortland is off to a good start. Past 2 years they have lost the season opener. The pitching was solid. Looks like Ratliff is the #1 this year. He had a good line, 6 K's 1 hit in 3 1/3 innings. He worked out of a bases loaded jam in the 3rd. Hartling, a junior college transfer, threw just as well - 3 K's 2 hits in 4 2/3. The only tight spot was in his final inning of work, 2 errors placed a runner on 3rd base, followed by a walk, before striking out his final batter. Ed Southworth looks like he will take over in the closing spot, walked 1 but struck out 2 in his lone inning of work. Cortlands bats didn't explode, but they kept the pressure on NC-Wesleyan by putting a runner on base in all but 1 inning. Adam Dimino, Steve Nickel, Matt June, and Damon Arnold all had 2 hits for Cortland. The only interesting thing I noticed was the absence of Kevin Jackson in the line up. He was the 3 hitter last year. I had heard he was injured but he did pinch hit later in the game. Maybe he hasn't swung that much leading up to the first series of games. Cortland faces a solid Emory team that, in years past, have been in the national rankings. That game will be at 11:00am, hopefully with live stats.

[scuba16]

Cortland is getting beat by Emory 18-7 top 9

[whitey16]

cortland has a lot of work ahead of them......  that sunyac crown isn't gonna come easy .....   just my 2 cents

[LTBB1971]

Cortland St. second pitcher vs NC Wesleyan, Scott Hartling was the most impressive pitcher.  He was throwing gas!  Kept hitters on their toes.  It did not help we hat some horrible swings but I give credit to Cortland, they look solid.  A lot of nice defensive plays as well helped their pitchers.  We made some costly errors. 

When I arrived at game today was really surprised to hear Cortland lost 18-7. 

NCWC vs Cortland State tomorrow again at 11AM.

[BaseballEliteNY]

After a miserable performance by the Cortland St. staff yesterday - 14 hits and 14 walks - they came back today with an excellent game. Ithaca transfer Adam Brown threw 4 2/3 innings of scoreless baseball. He walked 1, allowed 2 hits, and struck out 3. Mike Mahay was roughed up a bit in his 1 2/3 innings of work - 5 hits 2 runs 3 strike outs and 1 walk. Brockport transfer Kris Gentzke followed Mahay with a solid 1 2/3 outing, allowed 3 hits with 1 walk. Ed Southworth finished it up with 1 inning, 2 strike outs, 1 walk and 1 hbp. The offense had a productive day, led by Steve Nickel, Matt June and Alex Coffee.  June went yard and Coffee had 3 RBI. Nickel added 2 extra base hits. Aside from Mahays rough outing, the only other negative note was 2 errors by Cortland shortstop Damon Arnold.