COLUMBUS, GA. – Cortland finished second in the Bronze bracket of the NFCA Div. III Leadoff Classic after defeating DePauw University, 7-4, and losing to 25th-ranked Washington University (Mo.), 6-1, during the final day of the tournament.

The 23rd-ranked Red Dragons completed the season-opening tournament with a 2-4 record with three games against ranked foes. Cortland will play a doubleheader at William Peace University in Raleigh, N.C., Wednesday at 2 p.m.


Cortland 7, DePauw 4 (Box Score)

Cortland scored three runs in each of the first two innings and held on to avenge a loss to the Tigers on the first day of the tournament. Senior Nicole Gallo (Mount Sinai) went 2-for-3 with a triple and three RBI and freshman Diane Cork (Wayland/Wayland-Cohocton) finished 2-for-3 with a double and an RBI.

Junior Krista Oakes (Akwesasne/Salmon River) started and pitched five innings for her first win as a Red Dragon. She allowed four runs, two earned, on four hits. She struck out four and walked four. Junior Tiffany Sampere (Liverpool) earned the save with two innings of hitless relief. She allowed only one baserunner on a two-out walk in the seventh.

DePauw (4-5) scored a run on an error in the top of the first. Cortland tied the game on a failed pickoff throw in the bottom of the inning and added two more runs on a Gallo two-run single. Cork's RBI single and junior Meaghan Kohler's (Franklin, NJ/Warren Hills Regional) two-run double extended the lead to 6-1 in the second.

Gallo tripled in a run to push the lead to 7-1 in the third. DePauw scored twice in the fourth on a Kate Hendrickson RBI double and a wild pitch and another run in the fifth on a Emily Dieckmann RBI single before Sampere closed the door in the last two innings.


Washington 6, Cortland 1 (Box Score)

Washington's Kelsey Neal pitched a one-hitter and allowed only three baserunners, one by error, for the complete-game win. Cortland took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first when senior Lucia Meola (Liverpool/Cicero-North Syracuse) led off with a double, moved to third on a groundout and scored on a two-out error. The only other Red Dragon to reach was senior Cassie Kardias (Shrub Oak/Lakeland) on a one-out walk in the seventh.

Cortland held the lead until the Bears (12-2) scored two runs each in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings. Maggie Mullen finished 3-for-4, including a two-run single in the fifth, and Ashley Janssen was 2-for-3 with a walk. Neal also helped her cause with a two-run single in the sixth.

Sophomore Sarah Salamone (Liverpool/Cicero-North Syracuse) pitched the first four and two-thirds innings and gave up four runs on nine hits and a walk. She struck out one. Junior Amber Corrigan (Montgomery/Valley Central) gave up four hits, a walk and two runs over the final two and a third innings.