Cortland, NY — The State University of New York New Paltz continued SUNYAC play Friday, going on the road to face SUNY Cortland for the first time since the Hawks upset the perennial Red Dragon program last spring en route to the team's first ever conference title.
 
Friday's matchup favored the hosts, however, as Cortland threw well on the mound and kept the Hawks to just four hits in the game to open up the series with a 6-0 win. The Red Dragons improved to 10-9 overall and 2-2 in the SUNYAC, while SUNY New Paltz dropped to 12-7 and 3-1, respectively.
 
Freshman Kiran Paingankar (1-1) earned the start for the Hawks and was solid, throwing 6.2 innings, giving up nine hits, five earned runs, two walks with three strikeouts. However, SUNY New Paltz didn't have an answer for Cortland's Luis Misla (4-2) who threw a complete game shutout, giving up just four hits and one walk with a career-high 16 strikeouts.
 
The Red Dragons took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first on a two-out rally started by a walk on a full count. A double on the next at-bat allowed Cortland to take the lead, but Paingankar limited the damage forcing a fly-out two batters later to strand two on. The Hawks had a chance to answer in the third, as Anthony Pericolosi reached third with two out, but Misla got Dillon Ristano swinging to close out the frame with the hosts answering in the bottom half.
 
 
The Red Dragons led off the third with a base hit and double and Paingankar narrowly got out of the jam after forcing two straight outs with a flyout and strikeout, but gave up an RBI single up the gut of the infield that allowed one to score. Again, though, unfazed was able to limit the damage and close out the inning with a fly ball.  
Cortland opened up the game a bit in the fifth, adding three more insurance runs to take a 5-0 lead. Two straight base hits started the inning and after getting two consecutive outs, the Red Dragons knocked a three-run homer to build onto their cushion. Misla did the rest, as he earned 12 straight outs to keep the Hawks offense at bay, as he also got one last insurance run in the seventh.
Tommy Kreider, Michael Ascanio, Ristano and Matt Sarni were the only players to register a hit in the game for SUNY New Paltz, as Sarni also added a walk, finishing 1-for-2 in the outing. Connor Catania finished the last 1.1 innings for Paingankar and allowed just one hit and one walk with two strikeouts on six batters faced.
 
The Red Dragons and Hawks conclude their regular season series Saturday with a doubleheader on Wallace Field starting at noon.


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