Little Falls, NJ - Senior Mike Zaccardo (Rochester/Irondequoit) went 3-for-3 with two walks and an RBI and sophomore Matt Tone (Rochester/Irondequoit) allowed four hits and two runs over five innings as fifth-ranked Cortland defeated Montclair State, 8-4, to complete a two-game weekend sweep.

The win, Cortland's seventh straight, is the 300th for Cortland ninth-year head coach Joe Brown, who is now 300-86-1 (.776).

Junior P.J. Merriweather ( Mount Vernon) finished 2-for-3 with a walk and an RBI and freshman Jason Simone (Utica/Thomas R. Proctor) went 2-for-5 with an RBI for the Red Dragons (11-3).

Senior catcher JEFF MILLER (Wyckoff, NJ / Ramapo) went 2-for-4 and ED KLOEPPING (Pennsville, NJ / Pennsville) hit a two-run homer for Montclair (4-7), which has dropped two straight following a three-game winning streak.

 Tone struck out three and walked four while improving his record to 2-0. Junior Nicolas Blanco (Bronx/St. Raymond's) gave up two hits and one unearned run over two and two-third innings. He fanned six batters. Senior Nick Serio ( Bedford Hills/Fox Lane), Cortland's fifth pitcher of the game, entered with the bases loaded and no outs in the bottom of the ninth and the Red Dragons up 8-3. He induced a pop-up, a fielder's choicer grounder and a groundout to earn his second save of the season.

Cortland scored four times in the third inning. Merriweather led off with a single, but was forced at second on a Nick Palmiero (Rochester/Bishop Kearney) grounder. Palmiero stole second and walks to senior Joey Russo (Inwood/Lawrence) and junior Khyle Dimino (Lima/Brighton) loaded the bases. Simone followed with an RBI single, with an error on the play allowing another run to score. Sophomore Andersen Gardner (Fairport) hit a sacrifice fly to drive in a run and Zaccardo's RBI single closed the scoring.

Kloepping's homer, his fourth, cut the Red Dragons' lead to 4-2 in the sixth. Cortland picked up a run in the top of the eighth when junior Mike Avery ( Cortland) led off with a double and scored on a Merriweather single.

Montclair got a run back on LOU POLITAN's ( Livingston, NJ / Livingston) RBI single in the bottom of the eighth, but Cortland tallied three key insurance runs in the ninth. Simone led off with an infield single and stole second with one out. After Zaccardo was intentionally walked, a wild pitch moved the runners to second and third. Avery received an intentional pass to load the bases, and Cortland proceeded to score its three runs without hitting the ball when senior Josh Hicks (Sherburne/Sherburne-Earlville) walked, Palmiero was hit by a pitch and Russo walked.

Senior righthander TIM STRINGER ( Annandale, NJ / North Hunterdon) suffered the loss to fall to 0-2. Senior lefthander KEVIN DALTON ( Edison, NJ / Edison) pitched 3 1/3 scoreless innings allowing a hit with three strikeouts.

The Red Hawks return to action on Tuesday, March 25 as they host the Greyhounds of Moravian College at 3:30 pm at Yogi Berra Stadium.