The season might not have gone as hoped for, but Panthers fans couldn't have hoped for anything more than what the team delivered on the final day of the season. Hosting second-place Erie Community College a day after the Kats outscored the Panthers by a combined score of 33-5, TC3 put together two of its best games of the year to sweep the playoff-bound Kats. TC3 ends the season with a record of 6-35 overall and 3-24 in the West Division. Erie is 29-14 overall and 18-10 in the division.
Game One: Tompkins Cortland 10, Erie 9
The Panthes fell behind early in game one, but never gave up. Erie scored three in the second, but the Panthers got two back in the bottom of the frame. The Kats stretched their lead to 7-3 after four innings, and when Erie pushed two more across in the top of the sixth, the Panthers trailed 9-3 with just two more chances at the plate.
The bottom of the sixth was big for the Panthers, with the first six batters reaching base safely. By the time the Panthers were retired to end the sixth, five runs had crossed and Erie's lead was just one at 9-8. In the seventh, Erie threatened to tack on to their lead, loading the bases on a single and a pair of walks. Pitcher Mason Braid, who came on in relief the inning before, came up big and kept the Panthers in the game, ending the Erie threat with a strikeout and keeping the Panthers within one heading to their last ups.
The bottom of the seventh started with a groundout, walk, and popout, leaving the Panthers with just one out to go. A hit by pitch and walk loaded the bases and brought Jake Malkowski to the plate. The freshman worked a quality at bat, fouling off a couple two-strike pitches before putting a perfectly placed hit between third and shortstop, bringing home both Braid and Evan Shank for the Panthers' first walk-off win of the year.
Malkowski finished the game with four RBI while going 2-for-4. Parker Seeley also had two hits and Shank scored three times.
Braid earned the win, throwing 1.2 scoreless innings backing up a strong start by Roman Villanuva.
Game Two: Tompkins Cortland 12, Erie 2 (five innings)
The Panthers had a walk-off of a different variety in game two. With starting pitcher Mitch Martini dealing early, the Panthers ran out to a 7-0 lead after three innings. Erie got its first hit of the game in the fourth inning and scored their first run, but Jack Pilgrim led off the bottom of the fourth with a solo homer to make the score 8-1. Erie plated another run and had the bases loaded with one out in the top of the fifth, but Martini came up big, inducing a weak fly ball to right and then a fly ball to center that Dominic Zona ran down for the final out. Leading 8-2 , the Panthers loaded the bases with two outs, setting the stage for sophomore Keelan Marren to end his TC3 career in dramatic fashion. The lefty lifted a high fly ball over the right field wall for a grand slam, giving TC3 a ten-run lead and ending the game by the ten-run rule.
Martini had a great game, striking out nine and allowing just four hits over the five-inning complete game. Marren finished 2-for-3 with four RBI, Pilgrim and Zona each had two hits and two RBI.