WINTER HAVEN, FLA. – The Cortland softball team opened its 10-game Florida trip with losses to a pair of nationally ranked teams at Polk State College's DiamondPlex complex. The Red Dragons fell to 21st-ranked Rowan, 4-3, and 12th-ranked Kean, 4-1. Cortland's 0-4 start includes three setbacks to ranked squads, two by one run.
 
Cortland continues action Monday versus Messiah at 12:15 p.m. and Farmingdale at 2:30 p.m.
 
Rowan 4, Cortland 3 (Box Score)
 
Rowan took the lead quickly when Shilah Snead, after given a new life after a dropped foul pop-up, hit a solo homer to lead off the game. Cortland, however, answered with two runs in the bottom of the first. Diane Cork (Wayland/Wayland-Cohocton) singled, stole second and took third on a Jamie Bucci (Tarrytown/Sleepy Hollow) infield single. Bucci stole second, and with two outs Erin Wolstenholme (Oneonta) hit a two-run single to center.
 
Rowan posted three runs in the second to go up 4-2. The big hits in the inning were an Alyssa Sims two-run single and an Alysa Romero two-out RBI single. The Red Dragons got a run back in the third on walks by Cork and Bucci, a fly ball that moved the runners up, and Devynn Wilder's (Oswego) squeeze bunt on which Cork beat the flip home by the pitcher.
 
Neither team scored again, although Rowan stranded runners on second and third with one out in the seventh, and Cortland was unable to capitalize on a Rosie Phillips (Geneva/Our Lady of Mercy) leadoff single, a Cork sac bunt and a two-out Niki Barbato (East Meadow/Holy Trinity) two-out walk.
 
Romero, Morgan Smith and Shannon Costello each went 2-for-4 for Rowan.  Katie Nolan relieved Beth Ann Hyland in the third and earned the victory. She gave up two hits, two walks and no runs and struck out six.
 
Wolstenholme went 1-for-2 with two RBI and Cork finished 1-for-2 with a walk, sac bunt and two runs scored for the Red Dragons. Alexandrea Flint (Dalton/Keshequa) allowed eight hits and four runs, one earned, in five innings. Sarah Salamone (Liverpool/Cicero-North Syracuse) threw two scoreless innings of relief with two hits and one walk allowed.
 
Kean 4, Cortland 1 (Box Score)
 
Cortland and Kean managed only a combined seven hits in the Cougars' win.  Kean starter Courtney Yard threw a two-hitter with one walk and eight strikeouts. She gave up one unearned run. Jamie Lachall (Philadelphia, PA/Sun Valley) started for Cortland and gave up three hits, one walk and two runs and fanned two in four innings. Kirstyn Alonzo (Mechanicville) pitched a scoreless fifth and Katie Pitkin (Brownville/General Brown) allowed two runs in the sixth.
 
Kean quickly scored two in the bottom of the first on a MacKenzie Valeriani two-run single after a pair of singles and a walk loaded the bases. Yard did not allow a hit until Barbato singled with one out in the fourth. Barbato stole second, took third on an error and scored on a Wolstenholme RBI groundout.
 
The Cougars added two insurance runs in the sixth with the help of three wild pitches and a Emily Bissonnette RBI single. Cortland's lone hit besides Barbato's was a Bucci two-out single in the sixth.