The Cortland softball team lost a pair of one-run decisions in a non-league doubleheader at King's College of Pennsylvania. The Red Dragons dropped the first game in nine innings, 5-4, as King's scored three times in the bottom of the ninth, and the hosts completed the sweep with a 2-1 victory in the second contest.
Cortland (6-8) will open SUNYAC play with a doubleheader at Oswego Friday at 3 p.m. The games were originally scheduled for Saturday but were moved up a day due to potential weather concerns.
King's 5, Cortland 4 (9 inn.)
Cortland appeared on the verge of victory after scoring twice in the top of the ninth inning, but King's plated three runs in the bottom of the inning to record the victory.
Cortland led 1-0 in the second on an
Averee May (Highland Falls/James I. O'Neill) RBI single, but the Lady Monarchs tied the game on a two-out error in the bottom of the fourth. Cortland regained the lead in the fifth on a
Tori Scharff (Poughkeepsie/Arlington) RBI single, but King's again tied the game in the sixth on a two-out RBI single from Amber Saylor.
Each team had a shot score the go-ahead run in the seventh.
Kelly O'Gorman (Clifton Park/Shenendehowa) tripled with two outs in the top of the inning but was stranded, and King's couldn't capitalize on a one-out Megan Beaupre double in the bottom of the frame.
The teams utilized the NCAA tiebreaker rule starting in the eighth with a runner starting on second base. Neither team scored in the eighth, but in the ninth
Alissa De Padua (Milford, PA/Delaware Valley) walked, May bunted the runners to second and third, and
Andrea Schoonmaker (Marlboro) hit a two-run triple to right. Cortland, however, was unable to push across any more runs. King's opened up the bottom of the ninth with back-to-back doubles by Saylor and Samantha Bloom to tie the game at 4-4. Lexi Wolk followed with an infield single, a one-out error loaded the bases, and Mackenzie Yori drew a walk to force in the winning run.
Cortland out-hit the Lady Monarchs, 12-8, with Schoonmaker,
Ericka Sadowski (Liverpool),
Skyler Hoyt (Endicott/Union-Endicott) and
Victoria Brown (Fresh Meadows/Archbishop Molloy) registering two hits apiece. Saylor finished 2-for-4 with two RBI and Kelcie Senchak was 2-for-5 for King's.
Sam Van Dorn (Medford/Patchogue-Medford) took the loss after allowing five runs, but only one earned, in eight and a third innings. She struck out five and walked five. Samantha Bloom was the winner with nine innings in the circle. She struck out two, walked one, and allowed four runs, three earned, on 12 hits.
King's 2, Cortland 1
King's pitcher Nicole Kirse outdueled Cortland starter
Joelle Salisbury (Rotterdam/Notre Dame-Bishop Gibbons) for the win in the second game. Kirse allowed six hits and one run with a strikeout and three walks, while Salisbury gave up two runs, one earned, on four hits over six innings. She struck out three and walked four.
Cortland struck for its run in the fourth. O'Gorman walked, Hoyt bunted for a single and
Hannah Feldman (Buffalo/Sweet Home) singled to load the bases. Scharff singled up the middle to drive in a run, but King's averted a bigger Cortland inning with a pop-up, strikeout and fielder's choice force out to leave the bases loaded.
The hosts tied the game in the fifth on a Mindina Lieback leadoff walk, two wild pitches and an Ally DeVoir sacrifice fly. Cortland threatened in the sixth on a one-out Feldman double and a two-out
Taylor Felicello (Marlboro) single, but a pop-out left runners on second and third.
King's scored the winning run in the bottom of the sixth. Wolk led off with a bunt single and Megan Beaupre walked. An error on the next play allowed the go-ahead run to score. Salisbury retired the next three hitters to keep Cortland within a run. The Red Dragons opened the seventh with a
Sabrina Caputo (Westbury/W.T. Clarke) walk, but Kirse retired the next three hitters to end the game.
Beaupre finished 2-for-2 with a walk in three plate appearances for King's (11-5). Feldman was 2-for-3 with a double and Caputo went 1-for-2 with a walk for the Red Dragons.
