Cortland Softball Beats Bowdoin and Westfield State to Stay Alive at NCAA Regional

Cortland Sports Information Department

BETHLEHEM, PA. - The fourth-seeded Cortland softball team advanced to the championship round of the NCAA Division III Bethlehem, Pa. Regional with a 4-2 victory over third-seeded Bowdoin College and a 2-0 win over top-seeded and nationally 21st-ranked Westfield State in elimination games.
 
Cortland (27-16) will face host and second-seeded Moravian University on Saturday at 11 a.m. and needs to beat the Greyhounds twice to win the regional and advance to the NCAA Super Regional round. Moravian began Friday's action with a 2-1 win in eight innings over Westfield State in a winner's bracket game.
 
Cortland is guaranteed to at least match its national finish from last season, when the Red Dragons went 2-2 and finished second at a regional hosted by Rowan University.
 
Cortland 4, Bowdoin 2
 
Olivia DiSalvo (Scotch Plains, NJ/Scotch Plains-Fanwood) improved to 10-4 with the win over the Polar Bears, allowing three hits, two walks and two unearned runs in five-plus innings. She struck out two batters. Kaitlyn Macumber (Deposit) notched her fourth save with two shutout innings, giving up a hit and two walks and striking out one.
 
Shelby LaMont (Amsterdam) finished 2-for-3 with a double and an RBI to lead the Cortland offense. Kaeli McAnally (Islip) was 1-for-2 with a walk and two runs scored, Maggie Cummings (Holland Patent) finished 1-for-3 with a double, walk and RBI, and Laila Smith (Guilderland) went 1-for-3 with a walk and RBI.
 
For Bowdoin (27-11), Kathleen Hester took the loss after allowing three runs in three and two thirds innings. Rosie Panenka was 1-for-2 with a walk and a double and Reilly Parga finished 1-for-3 with an RBI.
 
Cortland took a 1-0 lead in the top of the third inning. Smith led off with a walk and Katie Stork (Massapequa) popped up a bunt that Bowdoin catcher Maddie Paschke made a diving attempt to catch in front of home plate. The play was originally ruled an out, but was then overturned after a long umpire discussion as the ball bounced before it was caught. With runners on first and second, Kayla Santo (Franklin Square/Valley Stream North) flied out, allowing Smith to tag and go to third, and with two outs Cummings hit an RBI double.
 
The Red Dragons tallied two runs in the fourth to go up 3-0. McAnally and LaMont led off with singles, and with one out Smith singled to drive in McAnally. Stork and Santo then drew consecutive walks, with Santo's forcing in a run. Cortland added a run in the fourth when McAnally walked with one out and scored on a LaMont double to left center.
 
Bowdoin scored two unearned run in the bottom of the sixth to cut its deficit in half. After a leadoff error, Paschke singled to put runners on first and third. Macumber entered and walked Panenka to load the bases, but struck out the next hitter. A Margaret Flannery-Goodman grounder to short resulted in a force out at second, with a run scoring, and Parga singled to right to drive in Paschke. Macumber got the next hitter to pop out to end the inning, and in the seventh she walked Kaitlyn Fado to start the inning before retiring the next three hitters to end the game.
 
Macumber walked the leadoff hitter in the seventh, but retired then three hitters to end the game.
 
Cortland 2, Westfield St. 0
 
Gianna Endieveri (Glens Falls) tossed a four-hit shutout with five strikeouts and no walks to improve to 12-8 as Cortland avenged a 2-1 loss to Owls (39-3) in the opening game of the regionals.
 
Santo provided the lone runs of the contest, hitting a two-run homer to deep left with two outs in the bottom of the third. Sam Pusloskie (Clarence) started the inning with a walk, stole second and went to third on a groundout, and the Owls looked like they might escape trouble after getting a groundout to third that temporarily kept Pusloskie from scoring.
 
Westfield State starter Angelina Vartuli dropped to 14-1  on the season after giving up five hits and two runs with one walk and one strikeout in six innings.
 
The Owls only managed to get one runner in scoring position against Endieveri. In the top of sixth, Lyla Dwyer led off with a single and was bunted to second by Arielle Ostman. Dwyer moved to third after tagging on a foul popup to the second baseman, but the next batter grounded out to short to end the inning.
 
Smith was 2-for-3 and McAnally finished 1-for-2 for Cortland. Dwyer was 1-for-2 for Westfield State.