COLUMBUS, GA. – The Cortland softball team opened its 2026 season by splitting two games at the NFCA Leadoff Classic. The Red Dragons defeated Spalding University, 12-2 in five innings, before falling to Stevens Institute, 7-1.
 
The Red Dragons continue play at the tournament Saturday with games versus LaGrange and Transylvania, followed by contests Sunday against The College of St. Benedict and nationally ranked Huntingdon.
 
Cortland 12, Spalding 2 (5 inn.)
 
Cortland trailed 2-1 after the first inning before scoring three times in the top of the second to take a 4-2 lead. The game remained 4-2 until the Red Dragons blew things open with an eight-run fifth inning, capped by a grand slam by Lillian Morse (Burnt Hills/Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake) for her first collegiate hit.
 
Sam Pusloskie (Clarence) finished 3-for-3 for her first hits as a Red Dragon and she scored twice. Laila Smith (Guilderland) was 1-for-2 with two walks, two RBI and two runs scored, Kayla Pendergast (West Hempstead) was 1-for-2 with a walk, two RBI and two runs, and Emma Robins (Levittown/Division Avenue), in her collegiate debut, was 1-for-2 with two walks and two runs scored. Shelby LaMont (Amsterdam) walked twice and drove in a run.
 
Gianna Endieveri (Glens Falls) earned the win after allowing four hits, two walks and two runs with four strikeouts in four innings. Olivia DiSalvo (Scotch Plains, NJ/Scotch Plains-Fanwood) began her collegiate career by allowing one hit and striking out one in a scoreless fifth.
 
For Spalding (2-4), Riley Wilkins finished 2-for-2 with a walk and Bianca Ward was 1-for-2 with two RBI. Tatum Riddiough took the loss, giving up 10 runs in four and a third innings.
 
Smith walked, moved to second on a bunt and took both third and home on wild pitches to give Cortland its first run. She then singled in two runs, followed two batters later by a Shannon Scotto (Putnam Valley/Lakeland) RBI groundout, to put Cortland up 4-2 in the second. The Red Dragons' eight-run fifth featured a Pendergast two-run single, a Maggie Cummings (Holland Patent) bases-loaded hit by pitch and a LaMont bases-loaded walk prior to Morse's grand slam.
 
Stevens 7, Cortland 1
 
Kyra Fischer threw a six-hitter with one run allowed for the complete-game win by Stevens. She struck out eight and walked three, and she kept Cortland off the board until the bottom of the seventh.
 
The Ducks (3-3) struck for three runs each in the second and third innings. Isabella Won hit a two-run single and Lilian Cournoyer had an RBI single in the second, while Kacey DiPasquale did the damage in the third with a three-run double. Allison Mitloff's RBI single in the fifth extended the lead to 7-0.
 
Cortland broke up the shutout in the seventh. Sabrina Chapman (Franklin Square/H. Frank Carey) led off with a pinch-hit single for her first collegiate hit. Smith singled with one out to move Emily Stavola (Somers), who had re-entered to run, to second base. With two outs, Scotto hit a single to right to drive in Stavola.
 
Smith finished 2-for-4, Stavola was 1-for-2, Katie Stork (Massapequa) went 1-for-3 with a double, and Morgan Ellerbrock (Colonie) drew two walks for Cortland. Kaitlyn Macumber (Deposit) started in the circle and allowed three runs, two earned, in two innings. Molly Farley (Goshen/Chester Academy), Cortland's second reliever, recorded with three scoreless innings.
 
Mitloff was 2-for-3 with a walk and RBI and Won was 1-for-2 with two walks, two RBI and three runs scored for Stevens.