With the 2025 season beginning in just a few weeks, the SUNY Cortland Club Baseball team is getting prepared to begin their season and “fill the yard” again in hopes of making it back to the Division II National Club Baseball World Series as well as their tournament in Panama City Beach, Florida.
Last season, Cortland Club Baseball made it all the way to the finals in Illinois. Still reminiscing on the excitement of last season, club president and pitcher James Mangan shares his thoughts.
“Our 2023-2024 season was definitely a season to remember,” Mangan said. “Not only were we able to make it to Regionals, but for the first time in team history we were able to win the tournament.”
After winning the tournament, the team was granted the opportunity to travel to Alton, Illinois to compete for the NCBA World Series title, which is the championship tournament for all of club baseball.
“Although we weren’t able to come out on top this was a one-of-a-kind opportunity because for most of us these were the most important games we ever played,” Mangan said.
Throughout the stress and intensity of trying to make it to the Division II World Series, these men were all about getting positive vibes through the support of their fans and came up with the concept of “fill the yard.”
“Fill the yard” was a term that surfaced about a week before the regional playoffs by former Club Baseball President and Cortland Alumni James Manzo. The term came to be last May based off the name of their home field: Gutchess Lumber Sports Complex in Cortland. The sports complex is located about ten minutes past SUNY Cortland and is considered home to the Cortland club baseball team.
“This sports complex is referred to as the “Lumber Yard” so about a week before our playoff games we were telling everyone we knew to “fill the yard” to have the advantage of more fans compared to our competition because this event happened to be at our home field,” Manzo said.
The concept was a complete success with around 70 fans showing up giving the team a crowd to celebrate with after winning the game that brought them to Illinois.
Going into this season with the high energy and success from last season, these men are looking for redemption and heavily training in hopes of making it back to the DII NCBA World Series while additionally preparing for a spring break tournament in Panama City Beach, Florida.
“Going to Florida is going to be the spark to our team,” said Vice President Ryan Ruiz. “We are going to a student-led conference and spending time together is going to be great and build a lot of team chemistry which we need.”
The ‘Swing into Spring’ club baseball tournament will be taking place the week of March 17th.
“We are making sure our pitchers’ arms are all conditioned and ready for a full season,” said outfielder and senior Matt Marini. “Our hitters are working on producing quality at-bats every chance they get, and a lot of late-night practices with just the guys and the vibes.”
Along with preparing for the upcoming season, tryouts are being held Wednesday February 5th at 10 p.m at Lusk Field House. With a number of prospects planning on attending the tryout the team is looking to see what talent is available to help them move forward as well as replace the 15 players they lost due to graduation and student teaching assignments.
Although some people might think of the them as just another club team, some members, like Matt Marini’s brother, graduate student AJ Marini, said they have built deep relationships.
“It’s like a big family in a way everybody is just boys with each other and always meeting somebody new. Not to mention it’s an opportunity to keep playing baseball.”
Marini was a Division II Baseball player at Salem University who decided to attend SUNY Cortland for his master’s degree.
SUNY Cortland Club Baseball will have their first game of the season on March 29 at noon against Ithaca College where they look to have a great season and “fill the yard” once more.