The Panthers softball team got in the win column for the first time in 2024, sweeping a doubleheader from SUNY Broome. The 9-0 and 13-4 wins, both in five innings, leave the Panthers with a record of 2-8 overall and 2-4 in the Mid-State Athletic Conference. Broome is now 3-9 overall and 1-3 in the MSAC.

Game One: Tompkins Cortland 9, Broome 0  (five innings)

Kiara Grover (Scio/Scio H.S.) was the big story in game one as the starting pitcher became the first Panther to throw a shutout and reach double figures in strikeouts since 2018. Broome puts runners on base in four of the five innings, but in each case, Grover was able to step up and end any threat with a strikeout. She allowed just one hit – a single in the first inning – and struck out the side in two of the five innings she worked.

While Grover was dominating the Hornets, the offense took a few innings to get started. But once it got started, it really rolled. In the third, Elizabeth Cobb (Cortland/Cortland Christian Academy) led off with the first hit of the game, starting a stretch where seven straight Panthers reached base. By the time the inning ended, seven runs had crossed the plate, the biggest one-inning output of the season for the Panthers. Two more runs in the fourth gave the Panthers the margin needed to end the game due to the run rule after Broome had its fifth time at bat.

Grover finished with 11 strikeouts and just one hit allowed over five innings of work. Cobb, Abby Foley (Baton/Tioga H.S.), and Mykenzie Thetga (Columbia Cross Roads, Pa./Athens H.S.) each had two hits and Gabby Foley (Barton/Tioga H.S.) drove in two runs.

Game Two: Tompkins Cortland 13, Broome 4  (five innings)

Batting first in game two, the Panthers picked up where they left in game one. Gabby Foley provided the big hit in a three-run first inning, driving in a run with a triple and then coming in to score on an error. Unlike game one, Broome had an answer in game two, plating three runs in the second to tie the score at 3-3 heading into the third. Tompkins Cortland regained the lead in the third, scoring two runs without getting a hit, and then blew the game open in the fourth. The fourth started with the first four batters reaching base and ended with Austyn Vance (Nichols/Tioga H.S.) roping a two-run triple to cap a five-run inning. In the fifth, Abby Foley became the third Panther to hit a triple in the game, energizing a three-run rally that gave the Panthers a cushion heading into the last at bat for Broome. The Hornets managed a single run in the fifth but not enough to keep the game going.

Zoie Burke (Lansing/Lansing H.S.) earned her first win in the circle, throwing all five innings and striking out three. Andrea Medovich (Kirkwood/Windsor H.S.) and Gabby Foley each scored three runs for the winners.

Looking ahead

The Panthers look to play SUNY Niagara Sunday in Dryden. First pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m.