ITHACA, N.Y. – The Cortland softball team lost two one-run, non-league contests at Ithaca College, falling in the opener, 1-0 and in the second game, 9-8, in nine innings. The Red Dragons (19-7) rallied from an 8-0 deficit at two innings in the nightcap to force extra innings before losing in the ninth.
 
Cortland returns to SUNYAC play Saturday with a doubleheader at Oswego and will host RPI in a non-league twinbill on Sunday.
 
Ithaca 1, Cortland 0
 
The opener featured a pitching duel between Ithaca's Anna Cornell and Cortland's McKenna Barry (Clifton Park/Shenendehowa). Cornell tossed a six-hit shutout with six strikeouts and no walks. Barry, now 12-2 on the season, allowed eight hits and three walks with one strikeout over six innings.
 
Ithaca scored the game's lone run in the bottom of the second. With two outs, Ava Rao singled and Belle de Oliveira walked. Sela Scheinman followed with RBI single to right center. Scheinman finished the game 3-for-4 and Jessie Lopez went 2-for-4 for the Bombers.
 
Cortland's best scoring chance came in the top of the sixth. Gina Meyers (Liverpool) led off with a single and was forced at second on a Shannon Scotto (Putnam Valley/Lakeland) grounder to third. Barry singled to put runners on first and second. Brooke Scheibe (Sayville) grounded out to second, and on the play pinch runner Emily Stavola (Somers) tried to score from second base but was thrown out at the plate to end the inning.
 
Meyers and Halle Wright (Ballston Spa) each finished 2-for-2 and Barry and Scheibe were each 1-for-3.
 
Ithaca 9, Cortland 8 (9 inn.)
 
Ithaca grabbed a quick 8-0 lead through two innings in the second game. Sydney Miranda singled in a run and Hudson Hassler hit a two-run double to give the hosts a 3-0 advantage in the first. Elise Waddington's two-run single and Haley Petrucci's three-run homer accounted for the Bombers' five runs in the second.
 
Cortland began chipping away at its deficit in the third when Barry hit a two-run single to make it 8-2. A Kaeli McAnally (Islip) RBI single and a Tori Reich (Cornwall) sac fly made it 8-4 in the fourth, and the Red Dragons scored two more in the sixth on an error and a Meyers sac fly.
 
Trailing 8-6, Cortland began the top of the seventh with Barry reaching via an error and moving to second on a Scheibe single. A groundout moved pinch runner Kayla Pendergast (West Hempstead) to third and Scheibe to second, and McAnally's groundout to the pitcher drove in Pendergast and advanced pinch runner Maggie Cummings (Holland Patent) to third. Julz Koch (New City/Clarkstown South) followed with an RBI double to left center to tie the game.

The teams began using the NCAA tiebreaker rule, with a runner starting on second base, in the top of the eighth. Cortland bunted its runner to third to start the inning before two groundouts ended the threat. Ithaca also started it portion of the eighth with a sac bunt but a lineout and groundout kept the game tied.
 
In the ninth, Barry walked to start the inning and a groundout put runners on second and third with one out. Ithaca, however, turned a lineout to first into a double play at second base to end the inning. In the bottom of the ninth, with de Oliveira placed on second, Scheinman bunted and a throwing error to first allowed de Oliveria to score the winning run.
 
Barry finished 2-for-3 with a walk and two RBI and McAnally was 1-for-3 with two RBI for the Red Dragons. Reich went 1-for-2 with a walk and RBI, while Koch and Meyers each drove in a run. Kim Westenberg (Massapequa Park/Massapequa) entered in relief in the second inning and allowed only one unearned run over the final six and two thirds innings. She gave up three hits and no walks and struck out three but took the hard-luck loss.
 
Petrucci finished 3-for-4 with three RBI and two runs and Miranda was 3-for-4 with an RBI for Ithaca (21-10). Ainsley Rogers tossed the final three innings and earned the win. She gave up two unearned runs on two hits with one walk.