PITTSFORD, N.Y. – Cortland split a pair of one-run games at St. John Fisher in non-league softball action, losing the opener, 4-3, when the Cardinals scored twice in the bottom of the seventh, before winning the second game, 9-8, after overcoming 3-0 and 6-5 deficits. 
 
Cortland (11-9) returns to action Saturday with a SUNYAC doubleheader at Oswego. 
 
St. John Fisher 4, Cortland 3 
 
Cortland managed only four hits against St. John Fisher starter Ainsley Evanetski, but two came in the top of the seventh as the Red Dragons briefly took the lead. Cortland trailed 3-2 with two outs when Julz Koch (New City/Clarkstown South) doubled and Alyssa Finno (Hurley/Kingston) hit her first collegiate homer to put Cortland on top. 
 
In the bottom of the seventh, Abby Flakus drew a leadoff walk to start the Cardinals' winning rally. She went to second on a wild pitch and Allison Rogowski walked. With Liv Godlen pinch running at second and Abby Parks running at first, the next batter hit a grounder to third. Cortland got the force out at third, but a wild throw to first put runners on first and third. Allie Konowski followed with an RBI groundout to short to tie the game. Pinch runner Maddie Nadrich moved from second to third on a wild pitch and scored the winning run when Amalia DeMartino beat out a grounder to short for a single. 
 
Fisher led 1-0 in the second on singles by Rogowski and Mari Spitz, a one-out hit batter and a wild pitch. Evanetski held Cortland hitless for three and two thirds innings before Halle Wright (Ballston Spa) hit her first collegiate homer to tie the game. The hosts regained the lead in the bottom of the sixth on a Clare Boegel sacrifice fly. 
 
Evanetski allowed four hits and no walks with three strikeouts for the complete-game win. Isabel Milazzo (Elmira/Elmira Notre Dame) went the distance for Cortland, giving up four runs, three earned, on seven hits in six and two thirds innings. She struck out three and walked four. 
 
All four of Cortland's hits went for extra bases. In addition to the Finno and Wright homers and the Koch double, Lizzy Byers (New Paltz) hit a double with two outs in the fifth. Seven different St. John Fisher players finished with one single each.

Cortland 9, St. John Fisher 8

Cortland edged the Cardinals in the second game, marking the 12th split in 15 regular-season doubleheaders between the schools since the series began in 2005. 
 
Cortland outhit Fisher, 14-9, with five players recording multiple hits. Wright was 3-for-3 with a walk and an RBI and Tori Reich (Cornwall) finished 3-for-4 with a double, RBI and two runs. Byers was 2-for-4, including a three-run homer as she's now homered in five of her last six games. McKenna Barry (Clifton Park/Shenendehowa) was 2-for-4 with a double and two RBI and Finno went 2-for-4 with a double and two runs. 
 
Klonowski homered twice for Fisher (3-11) and ended 2-for-4 with three RBI and two runs. DeMartino was 3-for-3 with a walk and two RBI, Rogowski finished 2-for-4 and Emma Smith homered, walked twice and drove in three runs in five plate appearances. 
 
Fisher went up 3-0 in the bottom of the second on a Klonowski two-run homer and a Smith bases-loaded walk. Cortland got two runs back in the top of the third on a Wright RBI single and on a first-and-third situation where Wright was caught stealing but Gina Meyers (Liverpool) was able to score from third. 
 
Beyers' three-run shot in the fourth gave Cortland a 5-3 lead, but Smith knotted the game with a two-run homer in the bottom of that inning, and the Cardinals took a 6-5 lead on Klonowski's leadoff homer in the bottom of the fifth. 
 
Cortland regained the lead for good with four runs in the top of the sixth. Finno led off with a double, went to third on a passed ball and scored on a Reich double to right center. Reich moved to third on a groundout and Elaina Ornstein (Yorktown Heights/Yorktown) drove in the go-ahead run with a single to short. Meyers singled to left and Wright walked to load the bases, and Barry ripped a two-run double down the right field line to drive in two runs and give the Red Dragons a 9-6 advantage. 
 
DeMartino hit a two-out, two run single drew Fisher within one at 9-8 in the bottom of the sixth, but the Cardinals stranded runners on first and second and were then retired in order in the seventh. 
 
Lindsey Richards (Liverpool/Cicero-North Syracuse) entered in relief after Klonowski's homer in the fifth and earned the win. In three innings she allowed two runs on three hits, walked two and struck out six. Her strikeouts included the final batters of the fifth and sixth innings, each with runners on first and second, and two hitters in the seventh.