POTSDAM, N.Y. – Cortland scored nine runs in the top of the first inning and never looked back in a 17-2, five-inning victory at Potsdam in the second game of a SUNYAC doubleheader. The Red Dragons also won the opener, 6-3.

Cortland (28-10, 14-2 SUNYAC), ranked first in the NCAA Div. III Northeast Region, now holds a two-game lead in the SUNYAC standings over Geneseo (12-4 league mark). The Red Dragons complete the regular season with a noon doubleheader Saturday at Plattsburgh and need only a split to clinch the SUNYAC regular-season title and the right to host the six-team league postseason tournament starting next Thursday.

GAME 1: Cortland 6, Potsdam 3 (Box Score)

Jamie Lachall (Philadelphia, PA/Sun Valley) ran her record to 10-2 after scattering seven hits over five innings. She gave up three runs, two earned, struck out three and walked none.

Katie Pitkin (Brownville/General Brown) permitted one hit, one walk and no runs with one strikeout in an inning and a third. Kirstyn Alonzo (Mechanicville) entered with a runner on first and one out in the seventh. She got the first batter she faced to hit into a fielder's choice to force the runner at second, and when the throw to first briefly got away the batter started going to second. Catcher Devynn Wilder (Oswego), however, was backing up the play and was able to tag out the batter to end the game and give Alonzo her first collegiate save.

Cortland opened the scoring in the second when Andrea Schoonmaker (Poughkeepsie/Marlboro) led off with a triple, then scored on the play when the shortstop dropped the relay throw. In the fourth, Courtney Kadish (East Amherst/Williamsville North) hit a one-out single and scored on Rosie Phillips' (Geneva/Our Lady of Mercy) two-out double. Phillips scored when the next hitter reached on an error and Cortland led 3-0.

Mikayla Shade (Bethlehem) led off the fifth with her third homer of the season to extend the lead to 4-0. Potsdam scored on Jordan Ott's RBI double in the bottom of the inning, but Cortland came back to scored two in the sixth. Diane Cork (Wayland/Wayland-Cohocton) singled in a run, and on the play started to head for second. Jamie Bucci (Tarrytown/Sleepy Hollow) scored from third during the Cork rundown, while Cork was eventually thrown out trying to go to third.

Potsdam started the bottom of the sixth with a Katie Marsman single, an error, and an Alexis Lerman single to load the bases with no outs. Pitkin entered and got the first batter to pop out before relinquishing a Lyndale Nephew two-run single. She escaped further damage with a strikeout and, after a double steal, a fly out to center.

Cork finished 2-for-3 with a walk and RBI and Phillips went 2-for-3 with an RBI and two runs. Kadish had two hits in four at-bats. Ott went 3-for-4 with an RBI and Marsman ended 2-for-4 for Potsdam. Carina Chirinko took the loss for the hosts after allowing three runs, two earned, on four hits and three walks in four innings.

GAME 2: Cortland 17, Potsdam 2 (5 inn.) (Box Score)

Sarah Salamone (Liverpool/Cicero-North Syracuse) registered the win in the nightcap after allowing six hits and two runs, one earned, in five innings. She struck out two and did not issue any walks. The game was called after five innings due to the eight-run rule.

Cork and Niki Barbato (East Meadow/Holy Trinity) each drove in three runs. Barbato was 2-for-2 and scored a run and Cork ended 1-for-2 with a walk and two runs scored. Bucci was 2-for-2 with a walk, RBI and two runs scored.

Kaleigh Churchill (Camillus/West Genesee), Stephanie Tirone (Amherst/Williamsville South) and Alissa DePadua (Milford, PA/Delaware Valley) each came off the bench to finish 2-for-2. Tirone also walked, drove in a run and scored twice, Churchill had an RBI and a run scored, and DePadua scored once. Cortland finished the game with 20 hits and five walks.

Cortland sent 13 batters to the plate in its nine-run first. Barbato singled in two runs to start the scoring after a Bucci triple and Cork walk. Erin Wolstenholme (Oneonta) hit an RBI double, Wilder and Phillips each singled in runs and, two batters later, Cork hit a three-run triple. Barbato closed the scoring with an RBI single for her second hit of the inning.

Bucci's RBI single highlighted a two-run second, and the Red Dragons added three in the third on a Schoonmaker RBI single, an Alicia Flanagan (Penfield) sac fly and a Tirone RBI single to go up 14-1. Makaylee Dowd (Saratoga Springs) and Churchill hit back-to-back RBI doubles in the fourth, and Cortland's final run came on a Bianca Trio (Mahopac) RBI fielder's choice in the fifth that scored Tirone, who led off the inning with a single.

Potsdam (5-24, 0-16 SUNYAC) scored its runs on a Lerman two-out RBI infield single in the first and a Angela Yodis two-out RBI single in the fourth. The Bears' run in the fourth was enabled by Cortland's lone error of the game. Meghan Dougherty started for Potsdam and gave up seven runs on five hits and two walks in two thirds of an inning.