NCAA REGIONAL DAY 2 SPLIT SENDS CORTLAND SOFTBALL TO CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND SUNDAY VS. ROWAN

Courtesy of Cortland Sports Information Department

CORTLAND, N.Y. - The Cortland softball team lost an NCAA regional winner's bracket game to nationally 15th-ranked Rowan University, 1-0, but stayed alive in the tournament with a 10-2 victory in six innings over Castleton University. The Red Dragons (37-10) will face Rowan in the championship round Sunday at 11 a.m. (moved from original time of noon) and will need to defeat the Profs twice to win the regional.

Castleton defeated Keuka, 9-1 in five innings, during the second game of the day Saturday to eliminate the Wolfpack and briefly keep its hopes alive before being eliminated by Cortland in the final contest.

Rowan 1, Cortland 0

Rowan's Beth Ann Hyland and Cortland's Alexandrea Flint (Dalton/Keshequa) battled in a pitcher's duel in the day's opening contest. Hyland, now 23-4, threw a six-hit shutout with six strikeouts and one walk. Flint allowed one run on five hits in five-plus innings. She walked four batters. Jamie Lachall (Philadelphia, PA/Sun Valley) entered in the sixth with runners on first and second and no outs and allowed only a walk in four batters to escape the jam.

Rowan scored in the bottom of the third (the Profs were the "home" team by virtue of a coin flip). Shilah Snead singled with one out and took second on a Mia Baldassari single to shortstop. Cortland's Erin Wolstenholme (Oneonta) made a nice diving stop on the Baldassari hit, but Snead beat the flip to second. Ashley DeYoung followed with a line drive to deep center for an RBI single that plated Snead.

Cortland had runners reach second base in five of seven innings but couldn't get on the scoreboard. Jamie Bucci (Tarrytown/Sleepy Hollow) led off the game with an infield single and stole second, but Hyland struck out the next three batters. The Red Dragons had leadoff batters reach in the third, fifth, sixth and seventh innings, and each time bunted the runners to second, but were unable to capitalize. Stephanie Tirone (Amherst/Williamsville South) successfully executed two of those sac bunts.

Baldassari finished 2-for-2 with a walk and DeYoung was 1-for-3 with an RBI for Rowan (37-8). Wolstenholme was 3-for-3 to account for half of Cortland's hits. She singled to the pitcher with two outs in the second and reached on singles to short to lead off the fifth and seventh frames.

Cortland 10, Castleton 2 (6 inn.)

Cortland trailed 2-1 entering the top of the third (the Red Dragons were again the "away" team, this time based on a formula of which team had been home or away in previous games). Wolstenholme hit a two-run homer in the third to give the Red Dragons a 3-2 lead, and Diane Cork (Wayland/Wayland-Cohocton) added a two-run homer in the fourth to extend the advantage to 5-2.

Cortland broke the game open with five runs in the top of the sixth, and the game ended after the bottom of the sixth due to the eight-run rule. Rosie Phillips(Geneva/Our Lady of Mercy) drove in the opening run of the sixth with a squeeze bunt, followed by a pinch-hit two-run single by Skyler Hoyt (Endicott/Union-Endicott), a Cork sac fly, and, two batters later, a Mikayla Shade (Bethlehem) RBI double.

Castleton (21-13) grabbed a 1-0 lead in the first on back-to-back singles by Jessica Babcock and Brittany Brayman, with an error allowing the runners to go to second and third, and a Chelsea Grady RBI groundout. Cortland tied the game in the second on a Phillips RBI single, but the Spartans responded in the bottom of the inning with a Timi Carone RBI infield single.

Lachall started for Cortland and pitched the first two innings, two short of what was needed to qualify for the win despite leaving with the lead. She allowed two runs, one earned, on four hits with one walk. Sam Van Dorn (Medford/Patchogue-Medford) pitched the final four frames and improved to 7-1 with the victory. She gave up four hits and three walks with one strikeout and kept Castleton off the board.

Cork finished 2-for-3 with three RBI and two runs scored, while Wolstenholme, Phillips and Hoyt each drove in two runs. Grady went 2-for-3 with an RBI to lead Castleton. In addition, Bucci tied the school single-season record with her 23rd stolen base - a swipe in the top of the first for her second steal of the day. She now shares the record with Danielle Seeger, who stole 23 bases in 1990.

Kayla Wood suffered the loss for the Spartans after allowing nine runs, six earned, on seven hits in five-plus innings. She struck out three and walked four.