ITHACA, N.Y. - Sophomore Donnalyn Cross (Binghamton/Chenango Valley) homered to lead off the bottom of the first inning and junior Katie Finch (Amsterdam/Broadalbin-Perth) threw a two-hit shutout with 11 strikeouts as Cortland defeated Buffalo State, 3-0, in a winner's bracket game at the NCAA Division III Regional hosted by Ithaca College.

With the win, the Red Dragons improve to 2-0 in the regional and will face Rochester, also 2-0, Saturday at 10 a.m. Cortland is now 42-6 this spring, tying a school single-season record for victories originally set in 2003.

Cross hit the first pitch she saw over the fence down the right field line to give Cortland the only run it needed. The Red Dragons added a run in the second inning to take a 2-0 lead. Sammi Dieffenbach (Erin/Horseheads) led off with a double and pinch runner Lexi Deming (Oswego) went to third on a Bethany Williamson (Lyons Falls/South Lewis) sacrifice bunt. With two outs, Rose Morrison (Miller Place) beat out a grounder to shortstop for an infield single to score Deming.

Cortland scored its final run in the sixht, starting with back-to-back singles by Jessica Harman (Penfield) and Emily Ringen (Pompton Plains, NJ/Pequannock) to lead off the inning. Dieffenbach successfully bunted Harman and pinch runner Cait Carner (Binghamton) to third and second, respectively, and Williamson hit a sacrifice fly to center to score Harman.

Finch allowed only two hits and three total baserunners as she improved to 24-4 on the year. Both Buffalo State hits came in the second inning - one-out back-to-back singles by Marissa Mariano and Kyrstin Lekki. Finch, however, struck out the next batter and got a pop-up to herself to end the threat. The Bengals' other baserunner came with one out in the fourth when Finch dropped a pop-up off the bat of Nicole Sabuda. Harman made a nice catch from her shortstop position on a foul pop-up and Finch struck out the next batter to end the inning.

Box Score

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