FREDONIA, N.Y. -- Fredonia senior right-hander Jake Harford (Silver Creek, N.Y.) needed an inning or two to find his pitching groove. It proved to be a costly slow start as the Blue Devils fell to nationally ranked Cortland, 5-2, in SUNYAC baseball Thursday at Ludwig Field.

Harford walked the first two batters he faced, the first resulting in a run. He allowed two runs in the second, one of them unearned, before settling down. At one point, he retired 11 straight batters before leaving the game after seven solid innings, including six strikeouts.

Equal to the task was Cortland junior right-hander Mike Harrington. Entering the game with one out in the third, Harrington pitched 6 2/3 innings of scoreless relief with nine strikeouts.

The Blue Devils scored both their runs just ahead of Harrington's arrival into the game. Following a Cortland error, Joshua Crocetti (Rochester, N.Y.) singled to center. Liam Kelly (Buffalo, N.Y.) lined an RBI single to right, and Ciro Frontale (Syracuse, N.Y.) followed with an RBI single of his own off Red Dragon starter Jake Casey.

Harrington came on and induced a fly out and a strikeout to end the Fredonia threat. With the help of two double plays, he faced the minimum of 17 batters before Frontale singled -- his third hit of the game -- to lead off the ninth. Kevin Yirinec (Fairport, N.Y.) singled with one out in the ninth to bring the tying run to the plate. Harrington got the final two outs.

The loss dropped the Blue Devils to 8-8 overall and 0-4 in the conference. Cortland, ranked No. 2 by D3baseball.com, improved to 13-3 overall and 1-0 in the SUNYAC.

The Blue Devils and Red Dragons move to a neutral site -- Houghton College -- for a doubleheader Friday afternoon to complete the three-game series. First pitch is scheduled for noon.