Two full weeks, several inches of snow and lots of chilly temperatures separated the Skaneateles baseball team from its season-opening 11-0 shutout over Moravia on March 30 to its OHSL Liberty division opener last Wednesday against Bishop Ludden.
All of that down time, though, didn’t dull the edge of the Lakers’ pitching. Combining on a shutout and getting just enough offensive help, Tommy Scherrer and Adam Lupo led the way as Skaneateles got another shutout, blanking the Gaelic Knights 2-0.
Scherrer worked five innings, surrendering four hits and three walks, but registering six strikeouts and stranding every Ludden runner that got on base. Then Lupo took over in the top of the sixth, his two-inning relief effort including a pair of strikeouts and just one hit allowed.
Gaelic Knights pitcher Ian Quinn threw a complete game – but Skaneateles got to him for a run in the bottom of the third and a valuable insurance run three innings later. Jake Reed had two of the Lakers’ four hits as he and Marc Pietropaoli scored the team’s runs. Josh McCabe and Joe Pitman added hits.
Visiting Jordan-Elbridge two days later, the Lakers rolled past the Eagles 14-1, batting around in the top of the first inning and crossing the plate six times, which was much more than it needed, though it went on to add runs in four of the next five innings, too.
Taking advantage of seven Eagles errors, Skaneateles had just 10 hits, and no individual had more than one. Cregg Scherrer did score three runs, though, as he, along with Noah Cliff and Pete Knupp, doubled. Jacob Dinello got two RBis as Knupp, Pietropaoli, Scherrer and Matt Neumann had one RBI apiece.
Four Lakers pitchers combined to hold J-E to three hits. Cliff went three innings, with Knupp working two innings in relief and Neumann and Scherrer helping, too. Combined, they got six strikeouts.
Then Skaneateles was back home Saturday for a non-league game against Tully, which required eight innings for the Lakers to complete a late-game comeback and conquer the Black Knights 8-7.
Tully grabbed a 3-0 edge in the first two innings, and when the Black Knights scored three times in the top of the sixth, Skaneateles trailed 7-3. But the Lakers made up that entire deficit with a four-run rally in the bottom of the sixth and won it two innings later, overcoming seven errors.
Joe Pitman, with three RBIs, led the comeback. Jake Reed and Jim Drancsak each had two hits and an RBI, while Cliff also drove in a run. But it was Adam Lupo pitching two scoreless innings of relief to pull it out after Reed and Drancsak worked the first six frames.
It sets up a key early-season showdown Tuesday between the Lakers and Solvay (who would face Westhill the day before), followed by a trip to Hannibal.
The Skaneateles softball team would take the field earlier than many of its Onondaga High School League Liberty division rivals, but it did not translate into immediate success.
In its season opener against Hannibal last Tuesday afternoon, the Lakers fought both the Warriors and windy, cold conditions, but did manage to put runs on the board while taking an 8-4 defeat.
Hannibal got the decisive jump, netting two runs in the first inning and six more in the top of the second as Megan Norris, with a home run and four RBIs, led the way. Skaneateles did fight back with single runs in the second, fourth, fifth and sixth innings.
Leah King got credit for a pair of RBIs, while Ryley Pascal and Hannah Stone also drove in runs. Margaret Canty earned a pair of hits as she, along with Kathryn Lindgren, Masyra Corona and Tara Chalupnicki, scored one run apiece.
Then, a day later, Skaneateles met the combined Syracuse City team and lost, 19-3, a game the Lakers kept close, only trailing 3-0 before Syracuse scored three times in the fifth inning and erupted for eight runs in the sixth and five runs in the seventh.
Maeve Canty’s RBI double in the bottom of the sixth was part of the Lakers’ lone rally. Canty and Kyra Cottrill scored runs as Amani Rolfe led the late Syracuse surge, going five-for-six with a double and seven RBIs.
Skaneateles was still looking for that first win when it ventured to Jordan-Elbridge on Friday afternoon, and still couldn’t find the magic formula, falling 7-3 to the Eagles despite two hits apiece from Chalupnicki, Cottrill and Elizabeth Williams. Meeve Canty scored a pair of runs.
Back home on Saturday afternoon, the Lakers fell to Tully 8-2, and saw its record drop to 0-4, something it hoped to fix Monday against Cazenovia before taking on Solvay and Hannibal later in the week.
