Cortland Standard .net

This was not quite the clean sweep of two years ago, when SUNY Cortland spring teams captured all six conference championships over a single weekend of activity.
The Red Dragons certainly came close to matching that unprecedented accomplishment, as four top-seeded teams took titles as SUNY Athletic Conference tournament hosts Saturday and Sunday.
Cortland’s softball, baseball, men’s lacrosse and women’s lacrosse squads were all successful as top-seeds in their respective playoffs. All four squads will be moving on into their respective NCAA Division III national tournaments, too.
Though versatile Taylor Hudson and top sprinter Melique Garcia — who were named as the C-Club Senior Athletes of the Year earlier in the week — had successful outings, Cortland women were second in the team standings and the men placed third at the SUNYAC Track and Field Championships hosted by Brockport this past Friday and Saturday.
Hudson won the women’s high jump and long jump to go along with a relay victory, while Garcia was the fastest man in both the 100-meter and 200-meter dashes.
Though Cortland missed going 6-for-6 in the title department, there were some remarkable performances by the Red Dragons, starting with Coach Julie Lenhart’s softball team.
After losing on Friday in their six-team, double-elimination tournament the nationally 22nd ranked Red Dragons needed to sweep three games on the weekend. They did just that, staying alive by beating Brockport 7-1 and Geneseo 5-4 on Saturday before claiming the crown Sunday with a 9-2 victory over Geneseo.
It was the 13th conference title for Red Dragons and the 700th career win for Coach Lenhart, who has 820 wins during her 21-year career that included five seasons at Wisconsin-Platteville.
The best individual performance arrived on Saturday afternoon at Wallace Field, where pitcher Seth Lamando took a no-hitter into the ninth inning in what turned into an 8-1 baseball playoff victory over Brockport for the No. 1 nationally-ranked Red Dragons.
A one-out double by Wes Burghardt — a junior out of Chittenango who spent last summer playing with the Cortland Crush in the New York Collegiate Baseball League — lined just inside the third base bag spoiled Lamando’s no-hit bid. Lamando was lifted in the ninth by Coach Joe Brown and Burghardt went on to score Brockport’s lone run on a John Craig single.
“I knew it was a hit right away,” said Lamando of the Burghardt two-bagger off a fast ball. He had struck out 11 Golden Eagles and walked two prior to losing the no-hitter.
“It was disappointing at first, but to go eight and a third (innings) I was happy with my performance,” he said. “I was just trying to hit my spots mainly. Off-speed pitches were working well and my defense was great behind me, so I have to give it to them.”
Lamando had also been the team’s starting third baseman and clean-up hitter until an injury sidelined him for a month, leading to Coach Brown deciding just to use the junior right-hander from Hopewell Junction as a pitcher for the rest of the season.
Cortland still had to work for this baseball crown, the fifth straight for Coach Brown and 33rd overall in school history. After a 17-game unbeaten streak was ended by Oswego to start Sunday’s championship round at Wallace Field, Cortland came back to beat Oswego 10-3 in the title game.
Cortland’s nationally-ranked lacrosse teams were also tested in Saturday title games at the Stadium Complex.
The No. 2 ranked women’s stickers trailed Fredonia 1-0 for over 13 minutes before pulling away for a 15-6 victory — the 17th straight title for the Red Dragons. Cortland has won 14 straight games.
With two goals, junior Ashley Gentile became the 27th play in program history to reach 100 career tallies.
The No. 11 ranked men’s team held a narrow 6-5 halftime lead over Plattsburgh before scoring six unanswered goals in the third period. The Red Dragons went on to put away the Cardinals 14-12, their 10th consecutive victory and eighth straight conference crown.
With two goals and an assist, junior attackman Zach Hopps became the 10th player in program history to surpass 200 career points.