The St. John Fisher College Softball team earned a split against nationally-ranked SUNY Cortland on Tuesday. The Cardinals, who are ranked fourth in the region, won the first game 5-4, with the Red Dragons, ranked tenth in the country and first in the region, taking an 8-5 win in the finale.
The Cardinals scored all five of their runs in their half of the fourth, and held on as the Red Dragons advanced the tying run to third base to pull out a 5-4 win. Singles from
Kristi Bradley and
Laura Rojek, and a double from Lauren O'Brien all brought in runs for Fisher, who took what seemed to be a commanding 5-1 lead after four innings.
Cortland stayed in it though, scoring a run in the fifth to trim the lead to 5-2, before a two-RBI double to the gap in right center made it 5-4 with a runner on second and just one out in the seventh. Senior pitcher
Amanda Shevchuk induced a fly out to center that allowed the runner to move to third, and the Cardinals escaped with the win with a groundout to third baseman Bradley to end the game.
Shevchuk moved to 11-5 on the season with the win, while
Samantha Vara,
Jenn Vanek, O'Brien, and Rojek each went 1-for-3 from the plate.
The Cortland bats got hot early in the second game. The Red Dragons capitalized on 10 hits through the first four innings to take a seven-run lead, 8-1, into the fifth inning. In the bottom of the fifth, a double to the right-center gap from freshman
Megan Rogers was enough to score classmate
Carissa Carlson. Vara batted in another run for Fisher, who took advantage of a wild pitch in the dirt to plate another run and pull to within four, 8-4.
A leadoff double from Bradley paid off in the sixth when Carlson hit a shallow single to right field to score another run, but the Cortland defense held strong to preserve the win.
Bradley and
Kelly Jones each picked up two hits and scored a run in four at-bats, with Carlson going 2-for-3 and scoring another run.
Melissa Blakeney dropped to 9-4 after taking the loss.
Fisher (23-9) will host Pitt-Bradford at noon on Saturday.
