SALISBURY, MD. – The Cortland softball team posted a pair of victories over the University of Lynchburg, 9-3 and 2-1, to finish with a 2-2 record at Salisbury University's Sea Gull Classic. The wins are the first two collegiate head coaching victories for Red Dragon first-year head coach
Molly O'Donnell.
Cortland finished with a combined 26 hits in the doubleheader versus Lynchburg (8-6), an NCAA "super regional" team last year.
Cortland is scheduled to play 10 contests at THE Spring Games March 15-20 in Florida, starting with games versus Stevens Institute and Arcadia on Sunday, March 15, in Leesburg.
GAME 1: Cortland 9, Lynchburg 3
Five Red Dragons registered multiple-hit games as part of a 14-hit attack in the opener.
Taylor Felicello (Marlboro) was 3-for-4 with a walk and three runs scored and
Cailey Cuttita (Clifton Park/Shenendehowa) went 3-for-5 with an RBI and two runs.
Lexi Szesnat (Schenectady/Colonie) drove in three runs during a 2-for-3 performance,
Alyssa Finno (Hurley/Kingston) finished 2-for-3 with a double and an RBI, and
Sabrina Caputo (Westbury/W.T. Clarke) went 2-for-4 with a double and two RBI.
Cady Walts (Cortland) tossed six innings for the victory. She scattered nine hits, struck out three and walked three.
Lindsey Richards (Liverpool/Cicero-North Syracuse) tossed a hitless and scoreless seventh with one strikeout and one walk.
Haylee Wood finished 2-for-3 with an RBI and Sophie Tully and Jordan Brown each went 2-for-4, with Tully driving in a run, for the Hornets. Alex Cisar suffered the loss after giving up three runs on six hits in two innings.
The teams each scored once in the second – Cortland in the top of the inning on a
Kiley Besko (Poughkeepsie/Arlington) two-out RBI single and Lynchburg in the bottom of the frame on Wood's two-out RBI single. The Red Dragons plated four runs in the third to go up 5-1. The inning started with singles by Felicello and Cuttita, followed by a Szesnat two-run single. Finno doubled two batters later and Caputo hit a two-run double.
The Red Dragons extended the lead to 6-1 in the fourth on a Cuttita RBI single. Lynchburg picked up single runs in the fourth on a Carol Oberhelman RBI double and in the fifth on Tully's RBI single, but Cortland pulled away with two in the sixth on Szesnat's RBI single and Finno's sac fly, and one in the seventh as a result of a Lynchburg error.
GAME 2: Cortland 2, Lynchburg 1
Tori Scharff's (Pleasant Valley/Arlington) RBI single broke a 1-1 tie in the bottom of the sixth inning. Finno led off the inning with a double, Caputo reached on an infield single and, after a Caputo steal, Scharff singled to left to give the Red Dragons the lead.
Junior
Karlee Weeden (Maybrook/Valley Central) earned her first win as a Red Dragon. The transfer threw a complete-game eight-hitter with one strikeout and two walks, and the only run she allowed was unearned. Lynchburg threatened in each of the last two innings, but Weeden was able to get out of both jams.
In the sixth, Sarah Commons doubled with two outs and went to third on an error. Two walks loaded the bases, but Weeden got the next batter to pop out. In the seventh, the Hornets put runners on first and second with one out on an error and a Cortney Rawes single. The next batter, however, hit a ball to Finno at third, and she was able to touch the bag and throw to first for the game-ending double play.
Finno finished 3-for-3 with a double and RBI to account for a quarter of Cortland's 12 hits. Cuttita, Szesnat and Caputo each were 2-for-3. Commons went 2-for-3 and Oberhelman was 1-for-2 with a walk for Lynchburg. Angela Sperandeo tossed all six innings for the Hornets and gave up two runs, one earned, on 12 hits with no walks and two strikeouts.
Lynchburg took a 1-0 lead in the top of the second, loading the bases on a one-out single and a hit by pitch and single with two outs before scoring on an error. Cortland tied the game in the bottom of the third. Cuttita singled and took second on an error, Szesnat singled, and two batters later Finno hit an RBI single through the left side.
