CORTLAND, N.Y. - The Cortland softball team swept visiting Clarkson, 7-6 and 8-0, in a non-league doubleheader as the Red Dragons opened their home season. Cortland built a 7-0 lead in the first game before holding on for the win, and the second game ended in five innings due to the eight-run rule.
 
Cortland (8-5) is scheduled to return to action on Wednesday with a home doubleheader at 3 p.m. versus Rochester.
 
Cortland 7, Clarkson 6
 
Gianna Endieveri (Glens Falls) retired the first 13 batters she faced before allowing a Kelsey Flanagan homer one out into the top of the fifth. She finished with one hit, no walks and one run allowed with seven strikeouts in five innings for her third win of the season.
 
Cortland scored at least once in each of the first four innings to build its 7-0 lead. Laila Smith (Guilderland) hit a two-run homer in the first and Katie Stork (Massapequa) hit an RBI double in the second to put Cortland up 3-0. Kayla Pendergast (West Hempstead) singled in a run in the third, with another run scoring on a double steal by Kaeli McAnally (Islip) of home and Maggie Cummings (Holland Patent) of third after a pickoff attempt at first base, to push the lead to 5-0 after three innings. The Red Dragons' two-run fourth featured RBI singles by Shelby LaMont (Amsterdam) and Pendergast.
 
Flanagan's homer made it 7-1 in the fifth, and the Golden Knights scored three times in the sixth on Isabel Haspil's two-run homer and Lexi Rydelek's RBI double. In the seventh, Clarkson put runners on second and third on a Maddie Throumoulos leadoff walk and Emily Martin one-out double. Olivia DiSalvo (Scotch Plains, NJ/Scotch Plains-Fanwood) entered in relief and gave up a Ryleigh Fontana RBI single, with Fontana taking second on the throw to the infield, and a Haspil RBI groundout to second to make it 7-6. With Fontana on third, DiSalvo got the next batter to foul out to left field to end the game and earn her first save of the season.
 
Cortland finished with 15 hits. Stork went 3-for-4 with two doubles, an RBI and two runs and LaMont finished 3-for-4 with an RBI. Pendergast was 2-for-3 with two RBI, Smith was 2-for-4 with a homer and two RBI, and McAnally went 2-for-4 with two doubles.
 
Martin finished 2-for-3 with two runs scored and Haspil drove in three runs for Clarkson. Starter Bella Hotchkiss allowed seven runs in four innings. Amanda Corrice tossed two shutout innings in relief, giving up one hit and fanning one batter.
 
Cortland 8, Clarkson 0 (5 inn.)
 
Coming off her save in Game 1, DiSalvo started the second contest and tossed a five-hit shutout over five innings. She struck out one and walked three.
The Red Dragons put up three runs in the bottom of the first on consecutive singles by Smith, LaMont and Shannon Scotto (Putnam Valley/Lakeland), with Scotto's hit driving in a run. McAnally singled to right, and an error on the play allowed the second of two runs to score.
 
Cortland pushed its lead to 7-0 in the third on a McAnally two-run double, a pair of Clarkson errors, and a Morgan Ellerbrock (Colonie) sacrifice fly. The game ended in the fifth when Ellerbrock walked, went to second on a one-out groundout and scored on LaMont's double to deep center.
 
Clarkson's biggest threat came in the fourth when the Golden Knights loaded the bases on singles by Rydelek and Flanagan and a McConnell walk. DiSalvo got the next batter to ground to third for a forceout at home, and the next hitter grounded out to short to end the inning. Clarkson also stranded runners on first and second with one out in the second and first and third with one out in the fifth.
 
LaMont finished 3-for-4 with a double and RBI, McAnally went 2-for-3 with a double and three RBI, and Scotto was 2-for-2 with a double, walk, RBI and two runs scored to account for seven of Cortland's eight hits.
 
Flanagan and Fontana each went 2-for-2 for Clarkson (2-11). Avery McDonald allowed seven runs, four earned, in two innings. Janzen Long gave up one hit and one run in two and two thirds innings.