KISSIMMEE, FLA. – The Cortland softball team fell twice during Tuesday's action at the D9 Sunkissed Games with a 6-2 loss to unbeaten Springfield College and a 3-2 setback to Millsaps College. The Red Dragons evened their record at 3-3 with the losses and, following a day off, will return to action on Thursday with games versus NYU at 9 a.m. and Susquehanna at 11:15 a.m.
Springfield 6, Cortland 2
The Pride (5-0) broke a 2-2 tie with three runs in the bottom of the third and never looked back. Talia Loda earned the win after allowing 10 hits but only two runs in seven innings with a walk and two strikeouts. Kirsten Drobiak went 2-for-4 with an RBI, Allie Wheeler was 2-for-3, and Alexyss Conley drove in two runs.
Kelly O'Gorman (Clifton Park/Shenendehowa) finished 3-for-4 with two doubles and an RBI and
Andrea Schoonmaker (Marlboro) was 3-for-4 for the Red Dragons.
Taylor Felicello (Marlboro) ended 1-for-2 with a walk.
Joelle Salisbury (Rotterdam/Notre Dame-Bishop Gibbons) started and allowed six runs, but only two earned, over four innings. She gave up eight hits and two walks and struck out four.
Courtney Kane (Bellport) made her collegiate debut in relief and in two innings allowed only one runner on a hit batter. She finished with three strikeouts.
Springfield scored twice in the bottom of the first. With runners on first and second, Wheeler hit a single to shallow right, and a throwing error allowed a run to score. Conley followed with an RBI groundout.
Cortland tied the game in the top of the third on a
Victoria Brown (Fresh Meadows/Archbishop Molloy)single, an
Alissa De Padua (Milford, PA/Delaware Valley) sac bunt, a Schoonmaker single, an
Ericka Sadowski (Liverpool) RBI groundout, and an O'Gorman RBI double.
The Pride answered with three in the bottom of the inning. The tiebreaking run came via a Conley RBI single. The other two runs scored on a fielder's choice grounder to the pitcher Salisbury, who flipped home in an attempt to get a runner trying to score. The ball came loose on the tag, and a second run came around to score as a result of the error.
Springfield closed the scoring on Drobiak's RBI double. Cortland had runners reach scoring position in each of the last four innings but couldn't score. The Red Dragons hit into a double play with two on in the fourth, left runners on second and third in the fifth and sixth, and has runners on first and second in the seventh. The sixth-inning rally was thwarted by a snag by Springfield third baseman Kayla Padroff on a hard liner by pinch hitter
Jess Miller (Campbell Hall/Goshen).
Millsaps 3, Cortland 2
Cortland starter
Sam Van Dorn (Medford/Patchogue-Medford) held Millsaps hitless for the first five innings, but the Mississippi-based Majors (10-5) struck for three runs on four hits in the sixth to turn their 2-0 deficit into a 3-2 lead.
The Red Dragons grabbed a 1-0 lead in the first when Schoonmaker walked, stole second and third, and scored on O'Gorman's 1-out single. They added a run in the third on an
Averee May (Highland Falls/James I. O'Neill) double and a Sadowski one-out RBI single.
MK Bozeman singled up the middle to lead off the sixth for Millsaps' first hit. Kayla Davidson drew a one-out walk and Jordan Lipari hit an RBI ground-rule double to left center. Lindsay Osbon's two-run single up the middle gave Millsaps the lead.
Cortland threatened to tie or win in the bottom of the seventh. Salisbury, who was already in the game as a relief pitcher, was put up to hit and drew a leadoff walk.
Cailey Cuttita (Clifton Park/Shenendehowa) reached on a bunt single, and May's sacrifice advanced runners to second and third. Millsaps pitcher Blair Little, however, got the final two outs on a shallow flyout to left and a groundout to short. Little pitched the final four innings and allowed no runs on two hits with two walks and three strikeouts for the win.
O'Gorman finished 2-for-3 with an RBI and May was 1-for-2 with a double and run scored for Cortland. Van Dorn finished with a pitching line of three hits and three runs allowed with three walks and six strikeouts in five and a third innings. Salisbury gave up one hit and no runs over the final inning and two thirds.
