Red Barons Defeat Erie CC; Finish 5th at the College World Series

The Corning Community College softball team ended a great run this season with a 3-1 win over Erie CC on Friday, May 22 at the NJCAA College World Series hosted at Carrier Park.  

The Red Barons entered the tournament as the #4 seed and drew #5 RCSJ Gloucester in their game one matchup.  Gloucester came out of the gates hot and scored two runs on the top of the 1st inning and a big 3rd inning, courtesy of some Red Baron defensive miscues, found the Red Barons down 7-1 entering the bottom of the 3rd inning.  Corning scored their first run of the game on a Makenna Dunbar triple that brought home baserunner Dominika Diaz.  Corning managed to put two on the board in the 3rd inning thanks to a Stella White homerun that also scored Eliza Lane.  In the bottom of the 4th is when the Red Baron bats came to life.  Raven Gonzales and Diaz reached base to set up a Marlee Stanton missle that cleared the leftcenter field fence, closing the gap to 8-6.  Dunbar followed up Stanton with a solo shot over the left field fence to bring the game to a one-run deficit.  Gloucester scored an unearned run in the 5th, but that would prove to be the last time they would touch the plate in the game.  In the 6th, Gonzales had Ashlyn Courson and Erika David on base when she singled to score Courson and then trying to advance to second-base, the throw gave enough time for David to scurry home and was safe thanks to a heads up slide where she caught the back of the plate with her hand to avoid the tag by the catcher.  With the game tied at 9-9, White again found magic in her bat, as she blasted her second homerun of the game, giving Corning the lead for good.  Dunbar entered the circle in the top of the 7th inning to shut the Roadrunners down 1,2,3 to end the game.  

With the opening round win, the Red Barons later faced eventual National Champs, North Dakota College of Science and ran into a buzzsaw.  The Barons were no-hit and fell 11-0.  Next up was a matchup with #3 seeded Joliet JC and Corning just couldn't stop the hot hitting Wolves, falling 13-3.

Corning then faced Region III's Erie CC in the 5/6 place game on Friday, in a highly anticipated matchup, featuring two of the top pitchers in Region III.   The in-season contest between the two had been rained out the last week of the regular season.  The game did not dispappoint and entered the top of the 5th scoreless.  Courson and David found their way on base and Diaz smacked a double through the right side of the Kats defense to plate both runners, giving Corning a 2-0 lead.  Erie answered back in the bottom of the inning with an unearned run to bring the score to 2-1.  In the top of the 7th, leadoff Gonzales smashed a triple to start the inning.  Julianna Gingrich pinch-hit and came through in the clutch as she smoked a 2-2 count pitch to leftcenter field for the sacrifice fly and RBI, giving Corning a little insurance heading in to the bottom of the 7th.  The Corning defense shut down the Kats to come away with the 3-1 win.  Chloe Perritt was outstanding in the circle, going the whole 7-innings allowing just 5-hits, no walks and no earned runs.  Not to be outshadowed, was Diaz, as she made some outstanding defensive plays at shortstop to keep the Kats at bay.

The Red Barons finished the season as the #5 team in the NJCAA D3 CWS, a 35-6 overall record and brought both the MSAC Conference and Region III Championship plaques back to Corning.  Diaz was named to the NJCAA CWS All-Tournament team and the Red Barons were awarded the NJCAA Sportsmanship Award at the conclusion of the tournament.