On the brink of a satisfying home victory, the Skaneateles softball team saw it snatched away by Syracuse – or more specifically, by Rachel Schmidt.
The Lakers’ 5-4, nine-inning defeat to Syracuse last Tuesday afternoon was a back-and-forth affair, Skaneateles appearing to gain control in the late going , only to see Schmidt, with her clutch work a the plate, erase that good work.
They traded third-inning runs before the Lakers went up 2-1 in the fourth inning. Syracuse grabbed a 3-2 lead in the top of the fifth, but that didn’t last, the Lakers putting together its own two-run rally in the bottom of the fifth.
It was still 3-2 in the seventh when Skaneateles pitcher Kyra Cottrill got the first two outs. Needing that last out to close it, the Lakers instead saw Schmidt drive home the tying run with a single, sending the game to extra innings, where in the top of the ninth with a one-out single off Cottrill that netted the go-ahead run.
Skaneateles could not answer it against Syracuse’s eighth-grade pitcher, Adonia Wade, and it lost. Cottrill still finished with seven strikeouts and earned three hits at the plate, too, as Elizabeth Williams and Tara Chalupnicki each added two hits. Margaret Canty, Marysa Corona and Sarah Blowers had one RBI apiece.
Hosting Westhill on Wednesday, the Lakers looked to bounce back from that Syracuse disappointment – but instead lost, 17-0, to the Warriors, who notched runs in four of the first five innings and then unloaded in a nine-run sixth inning.
Combined, Warriors pitchers Katie Lobello and Melissa Newcomb threw a no-hitter, with Lobello surrendering three walks, two of them to Corona. At the plate, Lobello was devastating with a home run, three doubles and seven RBIs in five trips to the plate.
