Three area high school baseball teams made it through Friday’s opening round of the Section III Class B playoffs – and their respective paths to a championship may have opened up, too.
Skaneateles survived a tense 1-0 battle with Marcellus as Solvay beat Canastota by that same score, while in the other half of the sectional bracket, Westhill needed its own late production to get past Bishop Grimes 6-5.
Entering the sectional tournament, Skaneateles sported a no. 4 seed and nine-game win streak, and now faced a Marcellus side it beat 6-2 a week earlier.
Cregg Scherrer, the Lakers’ ace, found himself in a tense duel with Mustangs pitcher Jared Sammon, each of them tossing five shutout innings as Sammon allowed five hits and two walks, but constantly escaped trouble.
Hugh White relieved Sammon in the sixth, and pitched a scoreless frame of his own as Scherrer worked all the way to the seventh, accumulating nine strikeouts while only allowing singles to Aiden Shea and Jack Flynn.
It was still 0-0 when, in the bottom of the seventh, Nate Wellington reached base, and raced around with the winning run when Jimmy Liberatore singled. Luke Viggiano was the only Lakers player to record two hits.
Skaneateles advanced to face Camden in Tuesday’s sectional quarterfinal, while Solvay, the no. 8 seed, had to survive its own closely-fought sectional game against Canastota, a no. 9 seed who resided in the state Class B top 10 for a portion of the season.
This game exactly resembled Skaneateles-Marcellus in that the first six innings went 0-0, Mason Sands effective on the mound for the Bearcats as he, like Scherrer, only allowed two hits while striking out nine.
Raiders pitcher Sam DiGeorge was just as good, notching nine strikeouts and limiting Solvay to four hits overall, but the Bearcats stayed patient and, in the seventh, matched Skaneateles with its own walk-off victory.
It came when Josh Florczyk doubled, and Robby Clark drove home Florczyk, and once Solvay had secured its spot in the sectional quarterfinals, more good news arrived.
Clinton, a no. 16 seed who had to win a play-in game against Cazenovia the day before, shocked no. 1 seed Holland Patent 5-3, so Solvay would get one more game as it would face Clinton to see who would get Skaneateles or Camden in the semifinals at Utica’s Murnane Field.
Handed the no. 7 seed for the sectional tournament, Westhill found itself paired against the same Bishop Grimes team it beat 15-5 three days earlier, but the rematch was much more stressful.
The Cobras scored three times in the top of the first inning, but the Warriors answered, notching a run in the first and four runs in the second to take a 5-3 lead.
It remained that way until the sixth, when Grimes put across a run, and then added a run in the top of the seventh to tie it, 5-5, but Westhill kept its poise and put across the game-winning run in the bottom of that frame off Joe Wike, who had relieved starter Matt Tarby.
Philip Zollo, pitching 3 1/3 innings of relief, earned the win. Brandon Amidon-Crawford had two hits, driving in two runs as Jake Zawadzki also had two hits. Zollo, Nick Bistrovich and Ben Coates each had one RBI.
While all this was going on, Bishop Ludden, as the no. 16 seed in the Class C sectional tournament, put a scare into top seed Oriskany, but the Gaelic Knights were eliminated in yet another 1-0 decision decided in the bottom of the seventh inning.
Even with Tom Westers pitching a gem for Ludden, he didn’t get any help as Oriskany ace Steven Armstrong held the Gaelic Knights to two hits, striking out eight while recording just a single walk, rewarded when Dylan LaSalle, in the seventh, drove in the game-winning run off Westers.
In the sectional quarterfinals on Tuesday, Westhill faces no. 2 seed Port Byron/Union Springs, with the winner going to the semifinals against Vernon-Verona-Sherrill or Adirondack.
