Cortland Standard .net

By TANEY BEAUMONT
Staff Writer
DeWITT — On a hot, humid Tuesday afternoon, the host Jamesville-DeWitt softball team used some torrid hitting to end the season of a heavy-hearted Cortland High squad.
The second-seeded Red Rams collected 11 hits, all but one of their 10 players who got at-bats with at least one safety, and rolled to a 12-2 win in the quarterfinals of the Section 3 Class A tournament.
The game was the Purple Tigers’ first action since the Friday night automobile accident that claimed the lives of a pair of the players’ schoolmates, seniors Andrea Czimmer and Alexis Porter. Their likenesses, drawn by senior centerfielder Ali Bustamante, hung on the wall of the CHS dugout, and the players wore purple ribbons in their memory. In addition, a moment of silence was observed before the game.
After the contest Purple Tigers coach Zac Darrow, whose seventh-seeded team finished 12-6, talked to his squad in right field. “I told them how proud I am of them and how far we’ve brought this program in three years,” he said. “The administration asked us if we wanted to end the season (after the tragedy), but to a girl this team wanted to play, which is the story of our season.”
This season did include winning the OHSL Freedom National Division with an 8-5 record and then beating No. 10 seed Indian River 4-0 this past Friday to open up sectional play.
“I couldn’t be more proud. We got off to a slow start but met our goals of winning the league and winning a home sectional game,” said Darrow. “Today was emotional, but the girls felt like they could play with J-D. We didn’t take advantage of our opportunities. We had a lot of doubles but couldn’t get the runners in.”
Cortland managed four hits, all of them doubles, in the contest off J-D freshman hurler Amanda Sumida, who had three strikeouts.
“Cortland is a good, well-coached team,” said J-D assistant coach Jeff Cantor, to whom head coach Phil DeAugustine, his team now 14-7, deferred for the post-season commenting. “Zac and his wife (Jessie Darrow, the assistant coach) have done a great job with that team, and they’re a good addition to the league. Our girls are very sensitive to Cortland’s tragedy; the softball community is small, and off the field it’s close. Any time young kids pass away, it’s tragic.”
THE PURPLE TIGERS got off to a fast start in the game, scoring both their runs in the first inning. Sophomore pitcher Cady Walts, who took the mound loss, led off with a walk and was sacrificed to second by eighth-grade catcher Ashley Shortsleeve. Senior shortstop Talia Cruz reached on a fielder’s choice that erased Walts at second before sophomore third baseman Kacie Hubbard walked and Bustamante then blooped a double to deep right that scored both runners.
The Red Rams answered right back with four runs in the bottom of the first to take the lead for good. Senior left fielder Emily Clapper single to left and took second when the ball was mishandled, then went to third on a passed ball and scored one out later on a single to center by junior center fielder Carly O’Hern.
After the second out of the inning, senior first baseman Alyssa Robens hit a line-drive home run over the fence in center to make it 3-2 before Sumida walked and senior catcher Erika Siegel singled up the middle. Sumida then came home on a bloop single to center by second baseman Hannah Gunther to make it 4-2 for the Red Rams.
“The pitch was low down the middle, which is my pitch,” Robens said of her second homer of the season. “We got a little down when they got off to their good start, but luckily we were able to pick it up. Our first inning was a huge factor. We hit a lot of big shots that they couldn’t get to. It’s great to win and move on.”
“Our first inning was huge,” said winning pitcher Sumida, who improved to 11-4 on the season. “After the top of the inning I was a little worried, but after we got those runs I knew I could play looser. I just focused, hit my spots and knew I’d do well with the defense backing me up.”
“We felt like Cortland had a lot of confidence coming in and was really up for the game,” Cantor said, “but also felt that if we could take advantage and get the lead early that we could cool them off. We really hit the ball well, and Amanda pitched well against a good team. We beat them 4-1 earlier this year (at J-D on April 18) but didn’t have Sherling for that game, and Robens got hurt midway through.”
CORTLAND’S OTHER HITS were doubles by junior left fielder Hannah Whelan in the second, junior designated player Ali DeGraff in the fourth and senior first baseman Abby Hess in the sixth. All three runners were left stranded at third.
“We started out fast and strong, but didn’t follow through,” Zac Darrow said. “They took advantage of their opportunities where we didn’t, finding holes and hitting the ball well. The girls were playing for their friends who passed away as well, and that’s a lot of pressure. J-D is a very solid, well-coached team that can hit from the top to the bottom of their lineup, and they and (top-seeded) Oneida should be the favorites.”
The Red Rams pushed a run across in the third on an RBI double by Siegel to make it 5-2, then plated four runs in the fifth and three more in the sixth to finish the rout. A run-scoring bloop single to left by Sumida and a homer to left-center by eighth-grade designated player Shayna Myshrall keyed the fifth-inning outburst, while Sumida cracked a two-run double to right-center to close out the scoring in the sixth after a sacrifice fly by Robens.
Sumida helped herself by going 2-for-3 with the double, three RBIs and one run scored on the day while Siegel went 2-for-3 with a double and two RBIs and Robens had the homer, sacrifice fly and three RBIs. No Red Ram batters struck out in the game. Bustamante paced Cortland with the double and the two RBIs, Cruz and Hubbard scoring one run each.
J-D moves on to face third-seeded New Hartford, a 2-1 winner over No. 11 Marcellus on Tuesday, in the Class A semifinals Thursday at Gillette Road Park in a 7 p.m. start.