EAU CLAIRE, WIS. – Tufts pitcher Allyson Fournier threw a five-hit shutout with eight strikeouts as the nationally seventh-ranked Jumbos defeated Cortland, 6-0, in the winners' bracket of the NCAA Div. III Softball World Series Sunday evening.
Cortland (34-16) will play Monday at 12:30 p.m. (Central) versus either Salisbury or Texas-Tyler in an elimination game. Salisbury and Tyler were supposed to play Sunday evening, but that game was postponed due to the weather and will be played Monday at 10 a.m. Cortland would need to win that game then beat Tufts twice (once Monday, once Tuesday) to win the national title. Tufts (45-3) needs only one win in two tries to capture the national crown.
Jo Clair went 2-for-3 with a walk and two runs scored and Michelle Cooprider was 2-for-2 with a walk and RBI for Tufts. Sara Hedtler finished 2-for-3, while Gracie Marshall and Kris Parr each drove in two runs. Fournier improved to 24-1 with the win and lowered her season ERA to 0.38. She took a perfect game into the fifth inning before allowing three hits in that inning, plus one hit in both the sixth and seventh. She did not walk a batter.
Cortland's
Cassie Kardias (Shrub Oak/Lakeland) broke up Fournier's perfect game with a single to lead off the bottom of the fifth. The Red Dragons eventually loaded the bases on one-out singles by
Erin Wolstenholme (Oneonta) and
Courtney Kadish (Williamsville/Williamsville North), but Fournier struck out the next hitter and got a pop-up to end the inning.
Tufts scored a run in the first when Hedtler led off with an infield single, moved to second and third on groundouts and scored on a Marshall single through the left side. The Jumbos added two in the third on Cooprider's RBI Baltimore Chop single over the third baseman's head and Parr's sacrifice fly.
In the top of the fifth, Cooprider reached on a one-out, bad-hop single to short. With two outs, Parr hit a double to left center and Cooprider just slid in ahead of the tag at home for the Jumbos' fifth run.
The game was delayed for just over two hours due to rain entering the bottom of the sixth inning with Tufts leading 4-0. The Jumbos scored twice in the top of the seventh on a Marshall RBI fielder's choice and an error to complete the scoring.
Coming out of the rain delay, Cortland's
Diane Cork (Wayland/Wayland-Cohocton) led off with a single to extend her hitting streak to 16 games. She moved to third when Tufts barely threw out
Lucia Meola (Liverpool/Cicero-North Syracuse) on a grounder hit in the hole between first and second. Cork, however, was stranded at third after a strikeout and flyout.
Amber Corrigan (Montgomery/Valley Central) suffered the loss for the Red Dragons. She allowed nine hits and six runs, five earned, with four walks and one strikeout.
Box Score/Play-by-Play
NCAA Interactive Bracket
NCAA.com Feature Story on the Team
Day 3 Video Recap (three games)
Watch Full Game Replay
