Casey Ryder, Staff Writer |
Last Friday, Apr. 22, the softball team fell to their arch-rivals Cortland in what was the first of a doubleheader between the two sides.
In the first game, Cortland got out to an early lead in the top of the first when Halle Wright hit a double to right field which brought Elaina Ornstein home from third. However, Oneonta responded in the bottom half with two runs of their own. First, Gianna Cancelleri hit a double to left field which brought home Caroline Koch from second, and later on in the inning, Cancelleri advanced home off of a Megan Palmatier ground out to shortstop to put Oneonta up one.
After the bats went quiet for a couple of innings, Cortland came out in the top of the fourth inning on fire. On the first at-bat, Halle Wright hit a triple to right field and on the following at-bat, Wright advanced home following an error by the Oneonta shortstop which put McKenna Barry on second. After a Lizzy Byers pop out to second and an Alyssa Finno single to put runners on the corners, Julz Koch hit a single down the left foul line to bring home Barry from third and Cortland went up 3-2. Then, following a single from Hannah Fairbrother to load the bases, pinch hitter Brooke Scheibe hit a single down the right foul line bringing in two runs from second and third to extend the lead to three. Finally, following a pitching change from Oneonta, Gina Meyers singled and brought in Fairbrother from third and at the end of the inning, Cortland led 6-2.
After Oneonta was unable to capitalize in the bottom half, Cortland added an insurance run in the top of the fifth inning. Julz Koch hit a double down the left foul line to bring home Alyssa Finno from second. However, in the bottom of the inning, Oneonta managed to cut the lead back to four when Gianna DiGiovanni walked with the bases loaded.
In the top of the sixth, Cortland’s offense came alive again. With runners on the corners and one out, Halle Wright singled to center field and Hannah Fairbrother scored from third to put Cortland up five. Later in the inning, with the bases loaded and two outs, Alyssa Finno doubled to left field to bring in two runs and put Cortland up 10-3.
Facing a large deficit, Oneonta managed to cut the lead in the bottom half of the inning. Following a Megan Palmatier walk to load the bases, Julia Serena singled to center field which brought in two runs and cut the lead to five.
Before Oneonta headed to the last inning, Cortland added an insurance run in the top of the seventh when McKenna Barry singled to left field to bring in Hannah Fairbrother from third to put Cortland up 11-5.
In the bottom of the seventh, down by six, Oneonta was unable to score and Cortland won the game 11-5.
Luckily for our Red Dragons, they won the second contest 2-0 to improve their overall record to 20-9 and their conference record to 11-3.
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