Kevin Zalnis blasted his two-run home run in the fourth.
Photo by Ashlee Carmody for D3sports.com
The Warhawks got a stellar pitching performance from Adam Dominick and rode that to the victory. He went the distance, allowed seven hits, struck out five and walked two. The offense kept any idea of pulling him out of the coaches head as they responded with 10 runs after scoing just a single run on Friday.
"He's a senior and he's been here and he's had a great year," Vodenlich said. "There were some times when we had some errors and (Dominick) had to pitch deeper than he had to had we picked up the ball. We stayed out of one error compounding into two errors compounding into a walk and then a hit. We stayed out the big inning, and I thought that was critical."
"Going into the game we wanted to battle, we wanted to play hard, but we fell short," Cortland senior John Giametta Jr., said. "It was an incredible season. The best season I've ever been a part of. … The 38-game winning streak was phenomenal, it really was. No one paid any mind to it though. We came out every game and wanted to win. Nobody cared about how many we won. The next nine-inning game was all we worried about."
Cortland got on the board first in the bottom of the second with the help of an error. After Matt Vitalone led off the inning with a single, Andersen Gardner struck out. A throwing error on Giametta's ground ball allowed runners to reach second and third. Vitalone then scored on John Zilnicki's ground out.
Whitewater tied it in the top of the third when Joe Munn led off with a double and later scored on Ben Kuhlmann's fielder's choice ground ball.
The Warhawks grabbed a 3-1 lead in the fourth when Kevin Zalnis blasted a one-out, two-run homer down the left field line.
"I stepped in looking for a fastball and got it," Zalnis said.
Whitewater added to its lead in the sixth when Jeff Donovan drew a one-out walk and scored on Ben Prather's two-out double.
The Warhawks made it 6-1 with a pair of runs in the seventh. Donovan delivered the big blow in the inning with a run-scoring double.
Cortland got a run back in the bottom half of the seventh when Joey Russo reached on an error, stole second, went to third on a wild pitch and scored on a ground out.
Whitewater then put the game away with pair of runs in the eighth and ninth. Zalnis doubled to start the rally in the eighth, which was helped by a bases-loaded hit batsman and run-scoring groundout. Munn then delivered a two-run single in the ninth.
Whitewater (40-9) advances to play at noon on Sunday against either Chapman or Johns Hopkins. Cortland (42-5) entered the finals on a 38-win streak but went 0-2 in the finals and their season ended today.