Cortland Standard .net

By ALAN BUTLER
Sports Editor
Just a year removed from playing in the NCAA Division III national title game, SUNY Cortland women did not make it beyond the SUNY Athletic Conference playoffs this past softball season.
The Red Dragons finished 28-15 overall and lost in the conference championship finals to top-seed Oneonta, and though most programs would savor such a season it was a showing that still has head coach Julie Lenhart scratching her head.
“I thought we were pretty good last year and we just never got going,” said Lenhart, who has posted 665 wins against 255 losses and a pair of ties during her previous 20 successful seasons coaching in Cortland.
“We just couldn’t turn it over. We’d almost do it, then we’d just chug along,” she added of the 2014 campaign.
That’s why the word “driven” is being used as focal point for Cortland’s ambitions towards this season.
“We didn’t win the SUNYACs, didn’t get to regionals, so we’re driven to get back there again and perform well and get back to the post-season. They do have a good approach to doing just that,” said Lenhart.
So the Red Dragons’ skipper is itching to see what’s in store for this year’s squad, which has a nice mixture of senior leadership and youthful talent. Cortland’s season has been put on hold, however, as today’s trip to face Hunter and host Salisbury to get things underway has been called off due to bad weather in Maryland.
“We need to play to find out what we’ve got,” says Lenhart, who has spent this snowy pre-season indoors and will now open up during spring break March 15-20 at the Rebel Spring Games in Winter Haven, Florida.
Four senior captains will lead the way for the Red Dragons.
Erin Wolstenholme is back at shortstop, though she got a late jump while also playing on the Cortland women’s basketball team that reached the SUNY Athletic Conference championship game just last weekend. The Oneonta native swung a .290 bat and drove home 21 runs while anchoring last season’s infield.
Pitcher Saran Salamone, catcher Devynn Wilder and third baseman Courtney Kadish are those other senior stalwarts. Salamone was 15-4 with a 2.74 earned run average on the mound for the Red Dragons, Wilder hit .276 with a pair of home runs starting 23 games behind the plate and Kadish hit .272 with three home runs making 41 starts.
“I think our senior class is a very solid core and they’ve been working very hard,” said Lenhart. “With Erin back (from basketball), we have that missing piece so we’re complete.”
CORTLAND’S TOP HITTER is also back, junior outfielder Diane Cork providing power to the line-up with a .368 batting average that including team-high of seven homers.
She will be joined in the outfield by classmate Jamie Bucci, a dangerous .349 bat swinger. Cork and Bucci were the top two run-scorers for Cortland a year ago with 38 and 35, respectively.
Coach Lenhard is looking to find a rightfielder to join the duo in the starting line-up, Adelphi transfer and sophomore Niki Barbato is a candidate for that spot along with junior Makaylee Dowd, a valuable utility performer.
In the infield, junior Carrie Stoddard is a .327 hitter moving from third base to first base. She had three home runs and 27 RBIs. Wolstenholme and sophomore second baseman Rosie Phillips are the middle infielders, with Kadish patrolling the third base hot corner.
Depth behind the plate is important, and freshman Stephanie Tirone out of Williamsville South and Jamie Corradina from Dobbs Ferry will be called upon to back-up Wilder.
There are seven freshmen and eight sophomores on Cortland’s 23-player roster, and Coach Lenhard is impressed with her young talent.
“The sophomore class has impressed the most. They came back and they’re really much better, especially on the mound,” said Lenhard.
SENIOR SALAMONE will be surrounded by promising pitching talent. One of those improving sophomores mentioned by Lenhard is Alexandrea Flint, who was 6-5 with a 2.88 earned run average during her rookie Cortland campaign. Sophomore Jamie Lachall and freshmen Katie Pitkin (General Brown) and Kirstyn Alonzo (Mechanicville) will round out the pitching staff.
“Flint could become really dominate. She looks really good and it’s just been a different year for her,” said Lenhart, noting she did not play soccer this season to concentrate on softball. “She has way more confidence. She looks good and has that pitcher mentality.”
All those arms will come in handy when the Red Dragons spend spring break playing games in Florida.
Things will unfold once Cortland can get on a field, looking to battle with Oneonta in a conference where Geneseo and Buffalo State also figure to field solid squads. And with past assistant coaches Larry Miller (now at Farmingdale) and Abby Martin (University of Buffalo) having moved on, Lenhart has Niskayuna native and former Ithaca College player Molly O’Donnell as a new assistant.
“We have the talent to have a very competitive year,” predicts Lenhard.
“To win you need balance, and right now, offensively, it looks like we have some power,” she added. “I think we should be good top to bottom in our line-up, and if anyone is off we have some quality people to put in off the bench. Depth is our strength, along with our seniors and sophomores.”