GLASSBORO, N.J. - The Cortland softball team opened play in the 2025 NCAA Division III playoffs with an 8-0 loss in six innings to host and nationally fourth-ranked Rowan University.
 
The Red Dragons (23-15) will face RPI in an elimination game in the four-team regional Friday at 1:30 p.m., while Rowan (44-2) will face Tufts in a winner's bracket game at 11 a.m. Tufts beat RPI, 8-1, in Thursday's second contest.
 
Emily McCutcheon tossed a one-hit shutout for the Profs, striking out four and not walking anyone, to improve to 19-1 on the season. The only baserunners she allowed came via a McKenna Barry (Clifton Park/Shenendehowa) one-out double in the fourth, a Kayla Pendergast (West Hempstead) hit by pitch in the sixth, and errors that allowed runners to reach in the first and third innings.
 
Rowan finished with 11 hits. Payton MacNair went 3-for-3 with a walk, RBI and two runs and Abigail Pawlowski was 3-for-4 with two RBI and a run. Kate Evick finished 2-for-2 with a walk and RBI.
 
Gianna Endieveri (Glens Falls) started for Cortland and allowed four runs, three earned, in two innings. Riley Firenze (Selden/Newfield) went the final three and a third innings and gave up four runs, but just one earned.
 
Rowan struck for three runs in the top of the first on a Pawlowski two-run single and an Alyson Reim RBI single. The Profs added a run in the second on a two-out error.
 
The game remained 4-0 until Rowan ended the contest with four runs in the bottom of the sixth. The Profs' first two runners reached on errors, and a double steal of home and second followed. MacNair singled to drive in a run, Breanna Bryant hit an RBI double, and Evick closed out the contest with an RBI single to trigger the eight-run rule.