CORTLAND, N.Y. - Cortland rallied for four runs in the bottom of the seventh to erase a 3-0 deficit and the top-seeded Red Dragons defeated fifth-seeded Oneonta, 4-3, to win the 2025 SUNYAC Softball title.
 
Cortland (23-14) entered Sunday's championship round with a 2-0 record. Oneonta (20-19) needed to win twice on Sunday and almost forced a winner-take-all game before Cortland's late rally. Cortland won its 17th SUNYAC title, and first since 2019, to earn an automatic berth into the NCAA Division III tournament. The 64-team national field will be announced Monday at 11 a.m. on NCAA.com.
 
Tournament MVP Lainie Ornstein (Yorktown Heights/Yorktown) started the winning rally with a walk and all-tournament selection Halle Wright (Ballston Spa) reached on an error to put runners on first and second. Laila Smith (Guilderland) drew a walk to load the bases and Maggie Cummings (Holland Patent) was hit by a pitch to force in a run and make it 3-1.
 
Sophia Wahl (Schuylerville), who entered to pitch in the fourth inning and earned her first win of the season, hit a sacrifice fly to left to cut the Oneonta lead to 3-2. On the throw home Smith advanced to third and Cummings moved to second. Shelby LaMont (Amsterdam) walked to re-load the bases. Shannon Scotto (Putnam Valley/Lakeland) hit a ball to the hole at short and Oneonta was able to get a force at third for the second out, but Smith scored on the play to tie the game.
 
All-tournament team selection Kaeli McAnally (Islip) followed by lining a ball to right field. The Oneonta right fielder made a leaping attempt and got a glove on the ball but was unable to make the catch, and the McAnally single drove home pinch runner Natalie McMichael (Hicksville/Kellenberg Memorial) from second with the winning run to set off a Cortland celebration.
 
Wahl came in after an Oneonta leadoff single in the fourth and allowed two hits and two walks with one strikeout over four innings for the win. Starter McKenna Barry (Clifton Park/Shenendehowa), who won Cortland's first two games in the tournament and earned an all-tournament slot, allowed three runs on six hits with no walks and one strikeout over the first three-plus innings.
 
Oneonta's four all-tournament selections - Ava Thys, Julia Serena, Emily Brown and Jamie Cardello - all played a big role in staking the guests to their 3-0 lead. Oneonta scored twice in the first on a Thys single, a one-out Serena single, a Brown RBI double and a Cardello RBI single. Serena added a solo homer in the third.
 
Brown started in the circle for Oneonta and shut out Cortland for six innings before allowing three runs, one earned, in the seventh. She struck out four batters, walked five and gave up three hits. Tanner Smith was charged with the final run to take the loss.
 
McAnally finished 2-for-4 with an RBI and Ornstein was 1-for-2 with a walk and run scored for Cortland. Serena went 2-for-2 with a homer, two walks, an RBI and two runs and Thys finished 2-for-4 for Oneonta, which opened the tournament Thursday with a single-elimination game win over Fredonia and a loss to Cortland, followed by wins Saturday versus New Paltz and Buffalo State in elimination games.
 
Joining the four Cortland and four Oneonta players on the all-tournament team were Mallory Rohon of New Paltz and Grace Albano and Madison Lucas of Buffalo State.