CLINTON, N.Y. – Cortland jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first inning and put the game away with seven runs over the final two frames as the Red Dragons defeated host Hamilton College, 11-3, in the second game of a non-league softball doubleheader. Hamilton won the opener, 3-2, with two runs in the bottom of the seventh.
Cortland (8-2) will travel to the University of Rochester on Sunday, April 2, at 1 p.m. for a recently added non-league doubleheader.
Hamilton 3, Cortland 2
Cortland trailed 1-0 before putting up single runs in the fifth and sixth innings to take a 2-1 lead. Hamilton, however, rallied for the win with two runs in the bottom of the seventh. Pinch hitter Sofia Santana led off with a single and Katlynn McGivney singled and took second on the throw to put runners on second and third. An Emma Tansky infield single loaded the bases and, one out later, Charlie Quinn hit the game-winning two-run single to right center.
Hamilton scored on an error in the bottom of the first to take the early lead. Cortland tied the game in the fifth on a
Gina Meyers (Liverpool) RBI single and took the lead in the sixth on
Kimberly Westenberg's (Massapequa Park/Massapequa) RBI double.
Tori Reich (Cornwall) finished 2-for-2 and Westenberg was 1-for-3 with an RBI for the Red Dragons.
Karlee Weeden (Maybrook/Valley Central) went the distance in the circle, allowing three runs, two earned, in six and a third innings. She struck out five, walked two and allowed nine hits. Tansky and Natalie Beebe each were 2-for-4 for the Continentals. Beebe also was the winning pitcher, allowing eight hits and two runs with no walks and seven strikeouts.
Cortland 11, Hamilton 3
Cortland registered 14 hits in the Game 2 victory. The game was halted by darkness with one out in the bottom of the seventh, and all of Cortland's stats during a five-run top of the seventh still count since the inning had no bearing on which team won the game.
Brooke Scheibe (Sayville) went 3-for-5 with three doubles and three RBI, Westenberg was 2-for-4 with two RBI, Meyers finished 2-for-4 with a walk, RBI and three runs,
Elaina Ornstein (Yorktown Heights/Yorktown) was 2-for-3 with a walk and two runs scored and
Anj Ferrara (Niskayuna) was 2-for-4.
Lizzy Byers (New Paltz) hit a three-run homer in the seventh and
McKenna Barry (Clifton Park/Shenendehowa) had a two-run double in the sixth.
Barry improved to 3-0 with the win after allowing five hits and three unearned runs over six and a third innings. She struck out five and walked six. For Hamilton (11-7), Teagan Graham allowed eight runs on 10 hits with five walks and a strikeout in six-plus innings. McGivney went 2-for-3 with a walk.
Cortland's four-run first featured a Scheibe three-run double set up by a Meyers walk, an Ornstein bunt single and a Barry walk. Later in the inning Westenberg hit an RBI single to left. Hamilton got a run back in the second when Mikayla Worzel doubled with one out and eventually scored on a Jordan Merklin groundout. The hosts scored twice in the fourth on a two-out error and a Santana bases-loaded walk but left the bases loaded after a fielder's choice force out.
Cortland had the bases loaded with one out in the fifth but couldn't score, but the Red Dragons capitalized in the sixth on a one-out Meyers single, a steal, an Ornstein infield single and Barry's two-run double to left center. The seventh featured RBI singles by Westenberg and Meyers, and Byers, who entered the game as a defensive replacement in the bottom of the sixth, blasted a three-run homer to right center. Cortland retired the first Hamilton batter in the bottom of the seventh before the umpires called the game.
