CORTLAND, N.Y. – The Ithaca College baseball team suffered a 6-4 non-conference loss to SUNY Cortland on Tuesday afternoon at Wallace Field. Ithaca falls to 4-3 on the season, while Cortland improves to 7-3.

Cortland jumped out to a 2-0 lead after four innings. The Red Dragons pushed a run across in the third on an RBI groundout and added another in the fourth on a solo home run.

Ithaca was held off the scoreboard until the top of the seventh as sophomore Gil Merod scored on a double play. Merod, who went 2-for-4, led off the inning with a single and moved over to third after a base hit by senior Jack Lynch.

The Red Dragons went back up by two runs, 3-1, in the bottom half of the seventh after a one-out double scored on an ensuing base hit.

IC secured its first lead of the game in the top of the eighth with a three-run inning. Junior Matt Smith led off with a walk and then first-year Louis Fabbo followed with a single. After an out was recorded, senior Garrett Callaghan was intentionally wanted to load the bases. First-year Alex Barker-Hook drove in Smith with a sac fly and then Merod gave IC the lead, 4-3, with a two-run double to right field.

The lead was short-lived, however, as Cortland plated three runs in the bottom of the eighth to secure the victory, 6-4. Cortland started things off with three straight hits to tie the game and then an Ithaca error led to the final two runs of the game.

Fabbo and Smith collected multi-hit games in the loss. First-year Matt Chase started on the mound for IC and struck out three batters over 4.0 innings.

Graduate student Charlie Hammel took the loss in 3.0 innings out of the bullpen. Hammel allowed four runs (two earned) on six hits before giving way to first-year Nate Scott for the final inning of relief.

The Bombers play RIT this weekend in a four-game series.