Courtesy of Cortland Sports Information Department

CORTLAND, N.Y. - Diane Cork (Wayland/Wayland-Cohocton) and Mikayla Shade(Bethlehem) each homered and Jamie Bucci (Tarrytown/Sleepy Hollow) finished 3-for-4 with two runs scored as Cortland opened NCAA Div. III regional play with a 7-3 win over Keuka College.

Cortland, the host school and second seed in the four-team regional, improved to 36-9 with the win. The Red Dragons will face top-seeded Rowan University in a winner's bracket game Saturday at 10 a.m. (start time moved an hour earlier than originally scheduled). Rowan (36-8) defeated Castleton in Friday's second game. Keuka and Castleton will play in an elimination game Saturday at noon, and the final game of the day will feature the two remaining one-loss teams at 2 p.m. in another elimination game.

Alexandrea Flint (Dalton/Keshequa) won to improve to 17-3 on the season. She retired the first eight batters she faced before allowing a walk and a Samantha Blum single in the third. A popup ended that threat, and Flint retired the side in order in the fourth before allowing a run in the fifth and two in the sixth. In five-plus innings she allowed three runs on five hits and two walks with one strikeout.

Jamie Lachall (Philadelphia, PA/Sun Valley) entered in the sixth with two runners on and Cortland up 7-2. She recorded a strikeout, allowed an Alysha Bachman RBI groundout, and got another groundout to end the inning. She also gave up a one-out single in the seventh, but a lineout double play ended the game. Lachall entered one batter too soon to qualify for a save.

Cortland scored in the first when Bucci led off with a single and stole second for the first of her two steals in the game. With two outs, Keuka committed a throwing error on a grounder to short, and Bucci scored on the play.

In the second, Cortland had a runner on first with two outs when a wild pickoff throw by the catcher allowed Stephanie Tirone (Amherst/Williamsville South) to advance to third. Rosie Phillips (Geneva/Our Lady of Mercy) walked, and with Bucci up a pitch was mishandled by the Keuka catcher. Phillips eventually took second on the play, and while she was briefly in a rundown Tirone scored from third. Bucci followed with an infield single, and Cork hit a three-run homer to left center to put Cortland up 5-0.

Keuka got on the board in the fifth. Bachman and Jessica Parmiter led off with singles to put runners on first and third. Janessa Vaadi hit a grounder to short that drove in Bachman, and Vaadi was safe as well on an error. The Wolfpack cost themselves a bigger inning, however, when the next batter lined out to short for an unassisted double play at second, and a popup ended the inning.

Cortland finished its scoring in the fifth when Kaleigh Churchill (Camillus/West Genesee) led off by being hit by a pitch and Shade hit a two-run homer just to the left of straightaway center.  Keuka's two runs in the sixth resulted from a Katelyn Warren RBI double and Bachman's RBI groundout.

Erin Wolstenholme (Oneonta) finished 2-for-3 and Andrea Schoonmaker (Marlboro) was 1-for-2 with a walk for the Red Dragons. Warren and Bachman were each 1-for-3 with an RBI for Keuka (19-13). Liz Warren went the distance in the circle for the Wolfpack and allowed seven runs, six earned, on 11 hits with two walks and a strikeout.