CORTLAND, N.Y. – The Cortland softball team captured its 13th SUNYAC title and sixth in the last nine years with a 9-2 victory over Geneseo in the league tournament's winner-take-all championship game at Dragon Field.

The Red Dragons (35-11) earn an automatic berth into the NCAA Div. III tournament. Cortland will be making its 20th NCAA showing and eighth in nine years. The tournament pairings will be announced Monday at 10 a.m. on NCAA.com. For the second year, the NCAA Div. III softball tournament will consist of four-team regionals, followed a week later by two-team super regionals, to determine who advances to the NCAA Div. III World Series.

The SUNYAC title win was also the 700th win at Cortland for 21st-year head coach Julie Lenhart. She is currently 700-266-2 at Cortland and 820-343-2 overall (including five years at Wis.-Platteville).

Junior Diane Cork (Wayland/Wayland-Cohocton) was named SUNYAC tournament MVP after finishing 2-for-3 with a three-run homer, a walk and two runs scored. She batted .421 with two homers and a team-high nine RBI during the tournament, including 5-for-7 with four RBI in Cortland's final two wins over Geneseo.

Cork was joined on the all-tournament team by teammates Andrea Schoonmaker (Poughkeepsie/Arlington), Kaleigh Churchill (Camillius/West Genesee), Niki Barbato (East Meadow/Holy Trinity) and Jamie Lachall (Philadelphia, PA/Sun Valley).

Lachall earned the win with six innings of six-hit ball. She gave up two runs and did not walk or strike out any one. Lachall finished the tournament 3-1 with a 1.78 ERA in four starts. Schoonmaker hit .500 (9-for-18) with nine runs, three walks, two doubles and two steals. She was 1-for-4 with a double in the title game. Churchill went 2-for-3 with an RBI in the finals and hit .500 with two homers and five RBI over the weekend. Barbato reached base in all four of her trips in the final game with three hits and a walk and was 8-for-18 (.444) with two homers and a double in the tournament.

Cortland scored four times in the second on a Churchill RBI single and Cork's three-run homer. Geneseo answered with two runs in the top of the third on Sami Brown's two-run homer, but Mikayla Shade (Bethlehem) hit a two-run home run in the bottom of the inning.

The Red Dragons tacked on two runs in the fourth. Cork walked and went to second on a Barbato hit. Cork later took third on a throwing error by the catcher, and a misplay by the center fielder during the play allowed Cork to score. Erin Wolstenholme (Oneonta) followed with an RBI double to right center. Cortland's final run came in the sixth on a Shade RBI single. Shade finished 2-for-4 with three RBI.

Brown, Ashley Fillmore and Cat Krok represented Geneseo on the all-tournament team, which was rounded out by Oneonta's Katie O'Gorman and Brockport's Brianna Harris and Kelly Proper. Brown finished 3-for-4 with two RBI, while Fillmore and Kayleigh Blersch each went 2-for-4.

Box Score

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