CORTLAND, N.Y. – Ithaca broke a tie with three runs in the top of the sixth, including a Kailey Collins leadoff homer, and the visiting Bombers defeated nationally 21st-ranked Cortland, 6-3, in the first game of a non-league softball doubleheader. Ithaca (10-2) completed the sweep with a 6-2 victory in the second game after scoring twice in the first and three times in the third to take control early.
Cortland (9-5) will return to action with a SUNYAC East doubleheader at New Paltz Saturday at noon.
Ithaca 6, Cortland 3
Ithaca's Beth Fleming went the distance for the win, allowing three runs on five hits with three walks and four strikeouts to improve to 5-1 on the season. Cortland's
Karlee Weeden (Maybrook/Valley Central) is also 5-1 after suffering her first loss of the spring. She gave up seven hits and five runs over five-plus innings, striking out three and walking three.
The guests jumped out quickly on a Gabby Laccona homer to lead off the top of the first. Weeden got out of a bases-loaded, no outs jam in the second with a strikeout, fielder's choice and pop-up, and Cortland took a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the inning.
Jess Miller (Campbell Hall/Goshen) singled and scored on an
Alyssa Finno (Hurley/Kingston) double. After Finno took third on a wild pitch,
Sabrina Caputo (Westbury/W.T. Clarke) walked and then intentionally got into a rundown between first and second. Caputo was tagged out, but Finno scored on the play.
Taylor Felicello (Marlboro) hit a homer to lead off the bottom of the third to give Cortland a 3-1 edge, but Ithaca knotted the game in the top of the fourth. Daniella Mulvey doubled and scored on a Hudson Hassler single. Hassler stole second and scored on Laccona's two-out single to left.
Collins, who entered the game as a defensive replacement, gave Ithaca the lead for good with a leadoff homer in the fifth. The Bombers added two more runs in the frame when Kira Fiegenheimer scored from third on a double steal that started with Allison Dell'Orto stealing second, and on the play a pair of Cortland throwing errors allowed Dell'Orto to score.
Miller finished 2-for-3 for Cortland, while Hassler was 2-for-2 and Laccona went 2-for-5 with two RBI for Ithaca.
Ithaca 6, Cortland 2
Ithaca picked up another complete-game win in the circle in Game 2 as Riley Piromalli scattered nine hits, struck out six and did not walk anyone. Cortland recorded at least one hit in six of seven innings, but Piromalli limited the damage to just single runs in the first and third innings.
McKenna Mattison (Horseheads) made her first start of the season for the Red Dragons and gave up five runs on five hits in three innings. She struck out two and walked two.
Lindsey Richards (Liverpool/Cicero-North Syracuse) gave up one run over four and a third innings and
Courtney Kane (Yaphank/Bellport) gave up one hit and didn't allow a run over the final inning and two thirds. Richards and Kane each fanned three batters.
Ithaca turned a Laccona leadoff single in the first into a run by virtue of three wild pitches, with another run scoring in the inning on Haley White's RBI single. Cortland answered with a run in the bottom of the first.
Kelly O'Gorman (Clifton Park/Shenendehowa), who finished 3-for-4, led off with a single, was bunted to second by Felicello, took third on a groundout, and scored on
Lexi Szesnat's (Colonie) RBI single to center.
White's two-run homer in the top of the third put Ithaca ahead 5-1, and Cortland got one of those runs back in the bottom of the third on an O'Gorman leadoff double and a Szesnat two-out RBI double. Szesnat finished 2-for-4 with two RBI.
The Red Dragons had runners on second and third with one out in the fourth after a Caputo double and
Tori Reich (Cornwall) single, but Piromalli escaped after a groundout and flyout. Ithaca closed the scoring in the sixth on a one-out Laccona double, a Dell'Orto single, and a double steal of second and home.
Dell'Orto finished 3-for-3 with a walk in four plate appearances. Laccona was 2-for-3 with a walk and two runs and White went 2-for-4 with three RBI.
