CORTLAND, N.Y. - Skyler Hoyt (Endicott/Union-Endicott) hit a tiebreaking homer in the top of the sixth versus Johnson & Wales and hit a grand slam versus Messiah as the Red Dragons stayed alive in the NCAA Division III Softball Cortland, New York Regional with wins over the Wildcats, 4-3, and the nationally 12th-ranked and top-seeded Falcons, 15-9.
Cortland (31-13), which reached the 30-win mark for the 15th time in the last 16 years, will face Widener University in the championship round Sunday starting at 10 a.m. The game time was pushed earlier to help avoid potential bad weather.
Cortland needs to defeat the Pride twice Sunday to win the regional title and advance to the super regional round. Widener, which defeated Messiah, 2-1, to start Saturday's action, needs just one win in two tries to claim the regional crown. Widener opened the tournament Friday with a 3-0 win over Cortland.
Cortland 4, Johnson & Wales 3 (Box score)
Alexandrea Flint (Dalton/Keshequa) pitched five innings for the victory over the Wildcats. She allowed six hits and three runs, struck out four, and did not walk anyone. Sam Van Dorn (Medford/Patchogue-Medford) hurled two scoreless innings for her fifth save of the season. She fanned two batters.
Cortland took the lead in the second when Kelly O'Gorman (Clifton Park/Shenendehowa) hit a two-out triple and scored on Hoyt's RBI infield single. O'Gorman hit a solo homer in the top of the fourth to put the Red Dragons up 2-0.
Johnson & Wales (34-10) tied the game with two swings of the bat in the bottom of the fourth. Diana Amendolara hit a two-out solo homer to center, followed by a Tiffani Semanchik round-tripper to right.
Cortland regained the lead in the fifth on an Andrea Schoonmaker (Marlboro) double, a wild pitch, and a Rosie Phillips (Geneva/Our Lady of Mercy) RBI single up the middle. The Wildcats answered in the bottom of the inning with an Alex Fantasia leadoff double, a sac bunt, and a two-out Katie Frost RBI single.
The Red Dragons went ahead for good when Hoyt homered to center with two outs in the sixth. Cortland tied to extend its lead in the seventh, but left fielder Amendolara threw out a runner at home trying to score on a Phillips single to left.
Johnson & Wales had a great opportunity to tie or win the game in the bottom of the seventh, but a baserunning mistake helped shoot down a rally. Katie Rufo led off with a pinch-hit single. With one out, Brenna DuPerry doubled to right center. Pinch runner Taylor Fay held at third, but DuPerry kept running past second and was thrown out near third base. Van Dorn got the next hitter to ground out to third to end the game.
Hoyt, O'Gorman and Phillips each finished 2-for-3 and Schoonmaker went 2-for-4 for the Red Dragons. Fantasia was 2-for-3 for the Wildcats.
Cortland 15, Messiah 9 (Box score)
Cortland scored five runs in three different innings on the way to the slugfest win over the Falcons (35-10). The Red Dragons scored five in the top of the third to take a 5-2 lead and another five in the fifth to go up 10-3. Messiah answered with four in the bottom of the fifth, but Cortland posted another five-spot in the sixth and led 15-7. Messiah scored a run in the sixth to avoid the eight-run rule, and pushed across another run in the seventh.
Niki Barbato (East Meadow/Holy Trinity) hit a two-run homer and Kaleigh Churchill (Camillus/West Genesee) and Phillips each add RBI singles during the five-run third. The five-run fifth featured a Churchill RBI double, a Hannah Feldman (Buffalo/Sweet Home) pinch-hit sac fly, a Schoonmaker RBI single and a Phillips two-run double. The Red Dragons added their last five runs on Churchill's RBI single and Hoyt's grand slam.
Messiah led 2-0 after two innings. Samantha Esper drove in a run on a fielder's choice in the first and Carrie Fix singled in a run in the second. Fix also singled in a run in the fourth to cut Cortland's lead to 5-3, The Falcons' four-run fifth was highlighted by an Emily Quatrale three-run double and a Shannon Denny RBI squeeze bunt. Amber Bingaman and Fix hit RBI doubles in the sixth and seventh innings, respectively, to close out Messiah's scoring.
The teams finished with a total of 27 hits, and the 24 combined runs was more than was scored in the first four games of the regional altogether. Churchill finished 3-for-4 with a double and three RBI, Mikayla Shade (Glenmont) went 3-for-4 with two doubles, a walk and two runs, and Phillips was 3-for-5 with a double and three RBI. Schoonmaker added two hits and two runs and Hoyt was 1-for-3 with a walk, four RBI and two runs. Fix ended 3-for-5 with a double and three RBI and Quatrale was 2-for-4 with a double, three RBI and three runs to lead Messiah.
Jamie Lachall (Philadelphia, PA/Sun Valley) went the first two innings in the circle and allowed four hits and two runs, one earned. Van Dorn earned the win to improve to 9-2 after throwing the final five innings, despite being tagged for nine hits and seven runs, five earned, with three walks. Madelyn Yannetti started for Messiah and allowed seven hits and five runs.
