CORTLAND, N.Y. – The Cortland softball team won its 11th State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) title and fourth in the last five years with a 12-1 victory over Buffalo State in the championship round of the league’s postseason tournament at Dragon Field. The game was called after the top of the fifth inning due to the eight-run rule.
The Red Dragons (36-3-1), ranked ninth nationally, earn an automatic berth into the NCAA Div. III tournament. Cortland will host one of eight NCAA regionals that will be conducted either May 12-16 or May 13-16. The NCAA tournament field will be announced on Monday.
Buffalo State (18-21), seeded fifth in the six-team SUNYAC tournament, advanced into the championship round with a 4-2 victory earlier Saturday versus Plattsburgh. If the Bengals had defeated Cortland, the teams would have played again for the title on Sunday.
Cortland, which has finished either first or second in the SUNYAC tournament each of the last 14 years, finished with 15 hits in the title game. The Red Dragons took a 4-0 lead in the bottom of the first on a Donnalyn Cross (Binghamton/Chenango Valley) solo homer, her ninth of the season, an Abby Martin (Oswego) RBI double and a Lorraine Stoddard (Liverpool) two-run double.
The Red Dragons blew the game open with six runs in the second. Jessica Harman (Penfield) singled in two runs and Martin hit a two-run homer. Later in the inning, Brooke Weidman (Wayland/Wayland-Cohocton) hit a two-run single.
In the third, Harman walked and Nicole Gallo (Mount Sinai), in her first at-bat of the season after returning from a preseason injury, hit a double. Rachel Barry (Seaford/Gen. Douglas MacArthur) grounded out to drive in a run and Skyler Nuccio (Clinton Corners/Pine Plains) plated a run with a sacrifice fly that was dropped in deep left field.
Tournament MVP Lyndsay Rowell (Sandy Creek) started for Cortland and retired all nine batters she faced, five by strikeout, in three innings. She improved to 20-2 on the season. Morgan Kuhn (Wayland/Wayland-Cohocton) allowed two hits and a run and struck out four over the last two innings. She struck out the side in the fifth to end the game.
Martin was 2-for-2 with three RBI, while Harman, Stoddard and Weidman each finished 2-for-2 with two RBI. Lucia Meola (Liverpool/Cicero-North Syracuse) went 2-for-3.
Buffalo State’s run came in the fourth on a Sara Morse leadoff double and a two-out RBI single by Sam Strapason. Bengals’ starter Aleesha Williams, who took a no-hitter into the seventh inning in the win over Plattsburgh, was stung for eight hits and eight runs, seven earned, in an inning and a third.
Rowell was joined on the all-tournament team by Cross, Harman, Martin and Weidman for Cortland, along with Buffalo State’s Kyrstin Lekki, Strapason and Williams, Plattsburgh’s Dana Mandery and Allison Smiddy and Fredonia’s Alyssa Brognano.
Box Score
Tournament Web Page
2011 SUNYAC SOFTBALL ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
Alyssa Brognano, Fredonia
Dana Mandery, Plattsburgh
Allison Smiddy, Plattsburgh
Kyrstin Lekki, Buffalo St.
Sam Strapason, Buffalo St.
Aleesha Williams, Buffalo St.
Abby Martin, Cortland
Brooke Weidman, Cortland
Jessica Harman, Cortland
Donnalyn Cross, Cortland
MVP - Lyndsay Rowell, Cortland
