Wind howled at the Sean Goggin Sports Complex as the Cazenovia softball team tried to turn back Madison County rival Chittenango on Friday afternoon.
They beat the worst of the conditions, and the Lakers emerged with a 2-1 victory over the Bears thanks to pitcher Nicole White’s best effort of the season.
Chittenango got just one hit off White, but it was a single by Lauren Molloy in the top of the fourth inning that drove home Malarie Mohorter and erased Cazenovia’s early 1-0 lead, created when Maggie Johnson brought home Nicole Chiarello in the second.
Quickly, the Lakers went back in front with a run in the bottom of the fourth as Rachel McLaughlin’s single scored Sarah Liddell, and White made that slim lead stick, amassing 13 strikeouts against that lone hit and three walks. White’s counterpart, Mohorter, was strong, too, surrendering just five hits and striking out 11.
Each side entered the game coming off rough experiences earlier in the week. Chittenango had nearly made a stirring comeback in last Monday’s game against visiting Skaneateles, only to fall just short in a 5-4 defeat to those other Lakers.
They were tied, 2-2, through one inning, but the Bears went cold in the game’s middle stages, shut out for five innings by Skaneateles pitcher Ali Tomlinson as the Lakers got to Mohorter for two runs in the third and a single run in the fifth.
Mohorter minimized the damage, though, and Chittenango was still in it when, in the bottom of the seventh, it nearly caught up. The Bears managed two runs to pull within one, but saw Tomlinson record the final out.
Brianna Koegel and Trisha Whaley both had one RBI, with Koegel, Brooke Matzel and Mohorter scoring runs. Tomlinson, aside from her pitching, also had three hits at the plate for Skaneateles.
At least that game was close – unlike Cazenovia’s 18-0 loss to Solvay, where the defending OHSL Liberty champion Bearcats did all its damage in big spurts, from a three-run first inning to a five-run third inning to a fifth-inning outburst where the Lakers got tagged for 10 runs.
Combined, White and Josie Chiarello could not stop Solvay’s attack, and the Lakers managed just one hit of its own, a double by White. Solvay’s Jackie Gardner tripled, doubled three times and earned four RBIs, while Julie Gardner had a home run and three RBIs.
From that extreme, Cazenovia jumped to the other end of things in last Wednesday’s trip to Hannibal, mostly thanks to one monstrous inning in a 24-1 rout of the Warriors.
The Lakers already had a 4-0 edge going to the top of the second, but proceeded to bat around twice in a long, productive rally that didn’t stop until Cazenovia had put up 17 runs, ending matters early.
White (who also struck out 14 in a complete-game pitching effort) went five-for-five, including a double and triple, and drove in two runs. Chiarello scored three times and managed four RBIs, while Johnson had three hits and three RBIs. Jocelyn Golden also drove in three runs as Morgan Mapstone and Holly Gamlen drove in two runs apiece.
Chittenango, meanwhile, lost 7-1 to Westhill, a game that was 0-0 until the Mustangs scored five times in the top of the fourth. The Bears got just one hit, by Mohorter, off Marcellus ace Molly MacLachlan, as Matzel drove in her team’s lone run in the seventh to break up the shutout.
Right after Cazenovia beat Chittenango, it lost a 3-1, non-league game to Afton on Saturday afternoon, only getting a single run in the fourth inning, White’s double scoring McLaughlin. Nicole Chiarello pitched, striking out eight and allowing five hits.
