ORANGE, CALIF. – The Cortland softball team posted a doubleheader sweep at Chapman University, squeaking out the first game in eight innings, 5-4, and winning convincingly in the second contest, 9-2. The Red Dragons (3-4) and the Panthers (6-16) had met only two times previously, with Chapman winning in both 2007 in California and in 1998 at the NCAA Division III World Series in Virginia.

Cortland continues its California trip on Tuesday with a doubleheader at the University of La Verne. That twinbill was originally scheduled for Wednesday but was moved up a day due to forecasted rain.

Cortland 5, Chapman 4 (8 inn.)

Cortland trailed 4-3 before tying the game in the top of the fifth. Taylor Felicello (Marlboro) hit a one-out double, moved to third on a flyout and scored on Alyssa Finno's (Kingston) RBI single through the left side. Sam Van Dorn (Medford/Patchogue-Medford) retired the Panthers in order in each of the last four innings and picked up the complete-game win. She allowed seven hits and no walks and struck out six over eight innings.

The NCAA tiebreaker was applied starting in the top of the eighth with a runner placed on second to begin each half inning. Cortland looked like it might not score in its turn after a popped up bunt and a fielder's choice that resulted in an out at third. With a runner on third after a wild pitch, Skyler Hoyt (Endicott/Union-Endicott) hit a fly ball to deep left. The left fielder got to the ball near the fence but dropped it, allowing a run to score and Hoyt to go to third. Van Dorn secured the win with a strikeout, flyout and groundout in the bottom of the inning.

Cortland scored in the top of the first on a Jess Miller (Campbell Hall/Goshen) RBI single. Chapman took a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the first on a Samantha Whalen RBI single and a fielder's choice after a dropped fly ball. The Red Dragons, however, responded with two in the top of the second when Finno tripled and scored on a Tori Scharff (Poughkeepsie/Arlington) sacrifice fly, followed by an Ashley Votta (Marlboro) double, a Hoyt walk and a Jess Marsh (Wynantskill/Troy) pinch-hit RBI single.

Chapman started the bottom of the third with singles by Christine LoVerde and Sarah Sumida and an RBI fielder's choice by Whalen. Two batters later the Panthers tried a squeeze bunt and the runner was tagged out at home, but a throw to second in an attempt to get the batter was not in time and allowed a run to score.

Finno finished 3-for-4 with a triple and Felicello went 2-for-4 with a double to lead the Cortland offense. Kelly McCarty was the tough-luck loser for Chapman despite giving up no hits or walks and just one unearned run over the final three and a third innings. LoVerde ended 2-for-4 with two runs scored and Whalen drove in two runs.

Cortland 9, Chapman 2

Sophomore Cady Walts (Cortland) turned in her second pitching gem in as many days, this time in relief following her complete-game win at Cal Lutheran Sunday. Walts entered in the bottom of the second with the bases loaded and no outs after three Chapman walks to start the inning. She got the next two batters out and looked like she might escape with no runs scored, but an error on a grounder by Michaela Foisy allowed two runs to cross the plate and give Chapman a 2-1 lead.

Walts kept the Panthers off the board the rest of the way to earn the victory. She finished with six innings of two-hit shutout ball with one walk and six strikeouts.

Hoyt went 3-for-4 with two RBI, Victoria Brown (Queens/Archbishop Molloy) finished 2-for-3 with a double and two RBI, and Hannah Feldman (Buffalo/Sweet Home) was 2-for-3 with an RBI to lead Cortland's 13-hit attack.

Feldman gave Cortland a 1-0 lead in the first with a two-out RBI single. Cortland took the lead for good with four runs in the top of the third. The inning started with a Kiley Besko (Poughkeepsie/Arlington) infield single and a Sabrina Caputo (Westbury/W.T. Clarke) game-tying RBI double. Feldman was hit by a pitch and Hoyt singled to right to drive in a run. Hoyt then forced a rundown that allowed pinch runner Megan Weber (Lockport/Starpoint) to also score on the play and give Cortland a 4-2 advantage. The fourth run came when Finno cracked a triple down the right field line to plate Hoyt.

Brown's two-run double in the fifth extended the lead to 7-2. Hoyt helped create two runs in the sixth in a similar fashion to the third, this time beating out a grounder to short to drive in a run, then getting into a rundown that allowed Caputo to score from third. The play on Caputo was close, with the umpire initially giving no signal indicating that neither a tag was made nor Caputo touched plate. Neither Caputo or the Chapman defense reacted for a few seconds before Caputo eventually got up and touched home for Cortland's final run.

Walts retired Chapman in order in four of the last five innings. The Panthers did threaten in the fifth, however, loading the bases on a Hope Ballard leadoff walk, a Foisy bunt single and a one-out single by Whalen. The next batter flew out to shallow center for the second out, and Walts made a nice play to her right on a grounder to throw out the next hitter and end the inning.