ONONDAGA COUNTY – What the Liverpool softball team possesses is something Baldwinsville has sought for a long time.
Once again, the Section III Class AA championship will hinge on whether the Bees can accomplish what it just missed, by a single strike, doing in an epochal 2022 title game.
For both sides, getting to Wednesday’s sectional final at Carrier Park was far from easy as Liverpool, the top seed, fought off no. 5 seed West Genesee 4-2 as B’ville, the no. 3 seed, edged no. 2 seed Cicero-North Syracuse 1-0.
Each of these games hinged on a couple of opportunities that were seized and many more that were not, especially in the case of the Bees’ battle with the Northstars.
Having split two regular-season game with C-NS, B’ville sent Bella Hotchkiss to the pitcher’s circle against Lilian Hotaling for the Northstars, and they both started out tossing two scoreless innings.
In the top of the third, Layla Trendowski reached base with one of her two singles and then raced home on Leah VerSchneider’s hit, one of three that VerSchneider would have on the afternoon to match Hotchkiss.
Staked to that slim advantage, Hotchkiss would find herself spending the rest of the game having to protect it, for even though the Bees amassed 10 hits, Hotaling and reliever Payton Bach would keep B’ville off the scoreboard.
Meanwhile, C-NS had all kinds of its own chances. Erica Hibbard went three-for-three, with Aubrey Coyle managing a pair of hits and four others getting hits – all of them singles.
Between her three strikeouts and error-free defense, Hotchkiss snuffed out every possible rally in her complete-game shutout, earning the right to get one more crack at Liverpool.
As this was going on, the other sectional semifinal saw Liverpool, with a playoff bye and off for more than a week, deal with a West Genesee side it lost to 6-5 the last time they met May 11.
Wasting little time, in the bottom of the first Maya Mills singled and Ava Falvo doubled her home, but Liverpool could not add to it despite loading the bases.
An inning later, again the bases were loaded, this time with Falvo at the plate, and the no. 2 hitter cleared them with a triple that scored Mills, Katia Flavin and Emily Nestor.
Settling down, two WG pitchers, Maria Brandt and Lorelai Leskoske, combined for two shutout innings apiece, forcing Liverpool ace Cassie Wiggins to defend the lead she got early.
Lexi Rydelek hit a solo home run in the top of the third to make it 4-1, and the Wildcats cut the margin to two in the sixth when Alanna Bowman doubled and then raced home on a Anna Drogo grounder.
Battling the heat, Wiggins, with two out in the top of the seventh, gave up singles to Brynlee Elkins and Sophia Van Horn. But with the tying runs on base, Wiggins made Bowman look at strike three to end the game. It was Wiggins’ eighth strikeout of the afternoon.
