Geneseo earns fourth straight NCAA tournament berth

Courtesy: Geneseo Athletics

The SUNY Geneseo Softball team clinched its second-consecutive State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) Championship, defeating visiting Cortland, 7-0, on Saturday afternoon at Raschi Field. 

HOW IT HAPPENED

• Junior Leah VanDerwarker reached on an error to leadoff the bottom of the first and sophomore Rebecca Schwartz made Cortland pay for the mistake, cranking a two-run home run to set the tone in the bottom of the first inning. Junior Olivia Fazio added an RBI triple as the Knights took a 3-0 lead. 
• In the third inning, junior Audrey Minton drove in a run with an RBI single and senior Alexandra Koutsogiannis hit a sacrifice fly. Senior Katherine Hayes added an RBI single as the Knights expanded the lead to 6-0. 
• Geneseo added another run in the fourth inning as Audrey Minton lifted a sacrifice fly to right, plating VanDerwarker to give the team a 7-0 advantage. 
• First-year pitcher Kaitlyn Schmitz shut down the Cortland bats, allowing just four hits and one walk while striking out three to earn the win and seal the championship for the Knights.

QUICK FACTS

• Schmitz was named SUNYAC Tournament MVP after batting 8-for-13 with five RBI and four runs scored across the four tournament games. She batted 2-for-3 on Saturday and added the win from the pitcher’s circle. 
• Audrey Minton finished 3-for-3 with two RBI and two runs scored to improve to 8-for-13 with six RBI in the last four games. Minton joined Schmitz, Lauren Kersch, Taylor Riccardi and Samantha Martz on the SUNYAC All-Tournament Team. 
• Geneseo tallied seven runs on 10 hits with no errors in the field. The Knights outscored opponents, 26-10, throughout the SUNYAC Tournament, becoming the first team to become SUNYAC Champions without a SUNYAC Tournament loss since Cortland accomplished the feat in 2016. 
• The Knights earn their fourth SUNYAC Championship in program history and their third in the past four seasons, winning the title in 2021, 2018 and 2002. Geneseo joins Cortland (most recently 2015-17) and Brockport (1994-95) as one of just three programs to ever repeat as SUNYAC Champions.

WHAT’S NEXT? 

Geneseo qualifies for the NCAA Tournament for the fourth-consecutive season and will find out their opponent and site of competition on Monday with the NCAA Division III Softball Selection Show.