Little Falls, NJ - Five players recorded two or more hits as part of a 15-hit effort as nationally fifth-ranked Cortland (10-3) defeated Montclair State, 11-2, in the first game of a two-game weekend series. The teams will play again Saturday at 1 p.m. at Montclair's Yogi Berra Stadium.

 Freshman lefthander Travis Ratliff ( Levittown / Division Avenue) improved to 2-0 with the victory. He allowed six hits and two runs over six innings. He struck out six and walked one. Nick Baker (Millerton / Webutuck), Michael Mahay (Whitesboro / Whitesboro) and Mike Assman ( Auburn / Auburn) each tossed one hitless inning of relief.

Junior leftfielder ED KLOEPPING ( Pennsville, NJ / Pennsville) went 3-for-3 with an RBI for Montclair State, which had its three-game winning streak snapped with the loss. The Red Hawks are now 3-4.

Jason Simone ( Utica / Thomas R. Proctor) went 3-for-3 with a double and an RBI for Cortland. Andersen Gardner (Fairport / Fairport) was 3-for-5 with a double and RBI and Khyle Dimino ( Lima / Brighton) went 2-for-4 with a double, walk, two steals and an RBI. Nick DeVito ( Hingham, MA / Hingham) finished 2-for-4 with a double and two RBI and Mike Avery ( Cortland / Cortland) went 2-for-5 and drove in a run.

After two scoreless innings, the Red Dragons got a run in the third as Gardner doubled with two outs and DeVito followed with a double of his own to give Cortland a 1-0 lead. That lead would be pushed to three runs the following innings. Nick Palmiero ( Rochester / Bishop Kearney) reached on an error and Simone slapped a single through the right side to put runners at the corners. Joe Russo (Inwood / Lawrence) would deliver and RBI singled for the first run and Dimino beat out a potential double-play grounder to give Cortland the 3-0 lead. The lead moved to 4-0 in the fifth as Simone lofted a sacrifice fly in the fifth and RBI singled by Gardner and DeVito made the score 6-0 in the sixth inning.

Montclair would get on the board in the bottom half of the sixth. STEPHEN PISCITELLO ( Hauppague, NY / Hauppague) singled with one out and scored as Kloepping drove a ball to deep to center field for a triple. Senior JEFF MILLER ( Wyckoff, NJ / Ramapo) brought home Kloepping with a ground out as the Red Hawks sliced the deficit to 6-0. But Cortland broke the game open in the top of the seventh with five runs. Russo had the bog hit, a two-run single through the right side. Avery and John Giametta (Marlboro / Marlboro) each added RBI singled before Mike Zaccardo ( Rochester / Irondequoit) brought home the final run with a ground out.

Senior righthander JAIRO MENDEZ ( Kearny, NJ / Kearny) took the loss for Montclair State.