CORTLAND, N.Y. – The Ithaca College baseball team fell to 17-7 on the season as the Bombers dropped a 12-8 decision to nationally ranked No. 6 Cortland on Tuesday afternoon at Wallace Field. The game was originally scheduled to be played on Wednesday at Ithaca, but was moved to Cortland today due to field conditions on South Hill and inclement weather in the forecast on tomorrow.

IC outhit Cortland, 17-11, in the contest but the Bombers left 13 runners on base and the Red Dragons utilized seven extra base hits, including four home runs.

The Bombers jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning as Buzz Shirley stroked an RBI double to plate Mike Nauta and then Gil Merod drove home Louis Fabbo with a groundout to short.

Cortland needed fewer than 10 pitches from Kyle Lambert to tie the game at 2-2, as a lead-off single and a double put two runners in scoring position. The next Red Dragons batter drove both runners home with a base hit to left field. After the first out was recorded, Cortland plated four more runs on a 3-run home run from Matt Funk, followed by a solo shot by James Varian, to make the score 6-2.

Cortland extended its lead to 8-2 in the bottom of the second inning as Danny Coleman belted a 2-run homer off Garrett Bell after IC dropped a fly ball that would have ended the inning.

IC got a run back in the top of the third to pull to within five runs at 8-3 as Ryan Laubscher drove home Connor Pedersen with a pinch-hit single through the right side of the infield with two outs.

In the top of the fourth, Shirley ripped a one-out, two-run double with Nauta and Riley Brawdy on base to bring IC back to within an 8-5 score. After a walk and pitching change, Pedersen made the contest an 8-6 difference with an RBI single to left-center and Shirley scored from second, but the rally ended there for the Bombers as back-to-back strikeouts with the bases loaded ended the threat.

The Red Dragons responded in the bottom half of the frame and pushed to their lead back out to three runs at 9-6, but Ithaca continued to battle and plated another run in the top of the seventh on a sacrifice fly from Fabbo to bring in Brawdy.

In the bottom of the eighth, Cortland needed one pitch to get that run back as Varian stroked a lead-off solo homer to left-center. The Red Dragons put the game away a few batters later with a two-run double off the right field fence to extend their lead to 12-7.

IC added another run in the ninth inning on a two-out solo home run to left by Fabbo to account for the final score of 12-8.

Pedersen paced IC with a four-hit effort, while Nauta, Fabbo and Shirley each collected three hits in the loss.

Lambert took the loss on the mound in just 1.0 inning of work. Bell fanned four batters over 3.0 innings of relief and Zane Grimes tossed the next 3.0 innings and allowed just one hit.

Erislandy Rives and Brett Budzak combined to throw the final inning of relief.

IC travels to RIT on Friday for a single game and returns to South Hill on Saturday for a doubleheader.