CLERMONT, FLA. – The Cortland softball team trailed 10-2 entering the bottom of the fifth but mounted a furious rally to tie the game before falling to Wisconsin-La Crosse, 14-13 in nine innings, at THE Spring Games. Earlier in the day, the Red Dragons dropped a 9-4 decision to Hope College of Michigan.
 
Cortland (0-3) continues action on Tuesday with games versus Macalester College at 2 p.m. and Smith College at 4:15 p.m. at Hancock Park in Clermont.
 
Hope 9, Cortland 4
 
All of the scoring in the game came in two innings - the first and the sixth. Cortland took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first on an error and a Julz Koch (New City/Clarkstown South) sacrifice fly. Hope (5-5) answered with five in the bottom of the first. Kenadee Schnick stole home as part of a double steal, Sophie Stironek hit a two-run triple, Terin Maynard had an RBI single and Mady Pahl drove in a run with a grounder to short.
 
Cortland cut the deficit to 5-4 in the sixth on Koch's second sac fly of the game and an error on a grounder to third. Hope responded with four in bottom of sixth on a Mya Spisz bases loaded walk, a Jalen Fossitt sac fly and a Sidney Puffpaff two-run double.
 
Laila Smith (Guilderland), Lainie Ornstein (Yorktown/Yorktown Heights) and Halle Wright (Ballston Spa) each went 1-for-3 for Cortland, with Ornstein scoring two runs. McKenna Barry (Clifton Park/Shenendehowa) gave up five runs, four earned, in four innings and took the loss. She gave up five hits, walked one and struck out three.
 
Gianna Kerschbaum went the distance in the circle for the Flying Dutch. She allowed three hits, one walk and four unearned runs and struck out five. Stironek went 2-for-4 with a triple and two RBI and Puffpaff was 1-for-3 with her two-run double.
 
Wisconsin-La Crosse 14, Cortland 13 (9 inn.)
 
Three outs away from losing by the eight-run rule, Cortland scored four runs in the bottom of the fifth to not only stay alive but to cut Wisconsin-La Crosse's lead to 10-6. After the Eagles scored once in the top of the sixth, Cortland rallied for five in the bottom of the sixth to knot the game at 11-11. The teams each scored in the seventh, as well as the eighth when the NCAA tiebreaker rule placing a runner on second base to start the inning was first used. UW-L (10-4) scored in the ninth and Cortland stranded a runner on third in the bottom of the ninth to end the game.
 
UW-L's Kaeley Niemiec pitched the first four innings and allowed one hit and two unearned runs. She re-entered in the bottom of the seventh and gave up a run to blow a save opportunity, but ended up earning the win after pitching the rest of the way. She finished allowing three hits and four runs, one earned, with five strikeouts and four walks.
 
Gianna Endieveri (Glens Falls) entered as Cortland's third pitcher in the top of the fifth. She allowed an RBI triple, but then retired the next two batters. She pitched the final four innings and finished with a line of four and two thirds innings, six hits and two walks allowed, two strikeouts, and four unearned runs.
 
Ornstein went 3-for-6 with two runs scored, Shannon Scotto (Putnam Valley/Lakeland) was 2-for-4 with four RBI, Barry went 1-for-3 with two sac flies and four RBI and Wright drew four walks, scored three times and drove in two runs. Smith and Kaeli McAnally (Islip) each scored two runs.
 
Kyra Lard and Maddy Bornback led the Eagles' 18-hit attack with four hits apiece. Lard went 4-for-6 with two doubles, four RBI and four runs and Bornbach was 4-for-5 with three RBI. Abbey Bosch finished 3-for-6 with a triple, RBI and two runs and Brooke Howard and Lindsay Steien each had two hits.
 
Cortland's four-run fifth inning featured a Wright bases-loaded walk, a Scotto RBI fielder's choice, a bizarre play where a run scored from third on a ball hit to left when the tag at home was dropped, and a Barry line drive sac fly. In the bottom of the sixth, Wright drew another bases-loaded walk, Scotto hit a two-run single, Barry hit a sac fly to center and pinch hitter Shelby LaMont (Amsterdam) tied the game with an RBI single to left, with a potential go-ahead run thrown out at the plate.
 
UW-L took the lead in the seventh when, on a steal of second, a throwing error allowed a runner to score from third. Cortland, with two outs and no one on in the bottom of the seventh, rallied for the tie on an Ornstein single, a Wright walk and Scotto's RBI single through the left side. A pop-up with the potential winning run on third ended the inning.
 
UW-L used a sac bunt to move the tiebreaker runner to third to start the eighth, but Endieveri struck out the next batter. Carly Gross singled on a 3-2 count to drive in a run and give the Eagles a 13-12 lead. In the bottom of the eighth, Niemiec retired the first two Cortland batters, but a throwing error on a grounder to third allowed pinch runner Kayla Pendergast (West Hempstead) to score from second to tie the game at 13-13.
 
In the ninth, the first UW-L batter flied out and a groundout moved Brooke Howard to third. Bornbach then singled to third to drive in a run. Cortland moved its runner to third with two outs after a strikeout with a pitch in the dirt that required the catcher to throw to first. Niemiec struck out the next batter, however, to end the game. The bottom of the ninth was the first time a team didn't score at least one run since the bottom of the third inning.