CORTLAND, N.Y. - Day one of the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) Softball Championship is in the books and five teams remain in the fight for the 2019 conference title.
Game 1: Cortland vs. Fredonia
Box Score
Fredonia dropped the first game of the 2019 SUNYAC softball tournament to top-seed and host Cortland, 7-0. Blue Devil junior right-hander Sam Seegar stymied Cortland through four innings for the Red Dragons broke through with four runs in the last of the fourth. All four runs were unearned as a result of two Fredonia errors. Cortland right-hander Sam Van Dorn limited the Blue Devils (13-22) to three hits, two by freshman lead-off hitter Karli Murray. Eva FitzSimmons had Fredonia's other hit. Cortland scored four times in the fifth on a Taylor Felicello RBI single, a Skyler Hoyt two-run double and an error on an Alyssa Finno grounder to second. Kelly O'Gorman increased the lead to 7-0 in the sixth with a three-run homer to left.
Game 2: Geneseo vs. Oswego
Box Score
SUNY Geneseo junior pitcher Ashlyn Kersch tossed the Knights' first no-hitter since the 2016 season and the first seven-inning no-hitter since 2015, lifting the squad to a 5-0 victory over Oswego in the opening game of the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) Tournament on Thursday. Oswego had runners in scoring position twice in the contest, but were unable to bring them in to score. The Lakers started the game with a walk from Erin Sweeney and immediately moved her to second on a Jessica Roe sacrifice bunt. Oswego's next two batters went down in order to come up empty on the early threat. In Oswego's final at-bat, Angela Frampton made her way to second after she reached on a fielding error and advanced on a ground out. A strikeout swinging ended the scoring opportunity and the tilt. Frampton threw the final 1.2 innings in relief of Brianna Harrington, working around two hits without allowing a run and struck out one batter.
Game 3: New Paltz vs. Oneonta
Box Score
Freshman Katie Quagliana had an uncharacteristically rough start, allowing the No. 4 seeded Red Dragons (16-20-1, 11-7) to jump ahead, 4-0 after the top of the first inning. Emily Fox stepped in the circle for Quagliana with two outs in the first inning and picked her up, getting out of a bases-loaded jam and registering the final out of the inning. The Hawks quickly responded in the bottom half, scoring three runs to get back into the game. Fox shut the door in the top of the seventh, striking out the Red Dragons last batter to hold on to a 7-6 victory for SUNY New Paltz. Fox took the win after pitching 6.1 innings, giving up just six hits, no earned runs and one walk, while recording six strikeouts. Oneonta rallied in the sixth to score a pair of runs aided by an error. Senior Dana Del Genio got things started with a sharp single to left field. She came around to score on a throwing error by the pitcher after a single by junior Jade Meehan. Meehan then scored from third base on a single by senior Lauren Sabatino. Three unearned runs in the bottom of the sixth inning sunk the Oneonta softball team in a 7-6 loss to New Paltz in the opening game for both squads in the 2019 SUNYAC tournament.
Game 4: Oswego vs. Fredonia
Box Score
The Blue Devils took a 3-1 lead in the third inning. Back-to-back singles by Alyssa Piniewski and Karli Murray got the rally started. Both of them scored when Amber Piniewski's sacrifice bunt was thrown into the rightfield for a three-base error. The third run scored when a ball to right by FitzSimmons was misjudged. Seegar pitched around a one-out double in the last of the fifth. Oswego took a 4-3 lead in the last of the sixth. Yudin relieved Seeger in the last of the sixth with one out after back-to-back put Oswego runners on first and second. Yudin induced a groundout for the second out before Zoe Mennig blooped a single into short left to score two runs. Alyssa Piniewski re-entered the game and advanced to second on a wild pitch, which brought Angela Frampton on in relief of Harrington. With one out in the bottom of the sixth and a 3-1 deficit, Harrington started a rally with a line-drive single to left field. Leah Czerwinski pinch ran for Harrington and moved to second with a Madelana Wrubel single up the middle. Following a ground out that moved Czerwinski to third and Wrubel into scoring position, a Zoe Mennig pinch-hit single to left center plated both runners to knot the game at 3-3. Claire Hewitt pinch-hit in the next at bat, and with the right fielder playing in for the right-handed batter, Hewitt lifted a drive to the opposite field, over the fielder's head and to the bottom of the fence. Mennig was able to score on the senior's double, which proved to be the game-winner.
Cortland will face Oneonta Friday at 9 a.m while Geneseo will play New Paltz at 11 a.m. Oswego will play at 1 p.m. and will have to wait for the outcome of the first two games to see who they will face. Fredonia ended it's season today, 13-23 overall.
For more information you can visit the championship page here.
