On a brilliant Tuesday afternoon, two softball pitchers matched that brilliance when Christian Brothers Academy and Jamesville-DeWitt squared off.
Freshman Jordan Sheridan (for the Brothers) and senior Jenn Keeler (for the Red Rams) traded zeroes through seven regulation innings and two extra frames, combining for 31 strikeouts by the time it was all done.
Only in the 10th inning did it get decided, as the Brothers put across a run and used two great defensive plays by third baseman Kaitlyn McIntyre to seal a 1-0 victory.
It marked the third time in as many weeks that CBA had won by a 1-0 margin, having pulled it off April 6 against Marcellus and April 13 against Fulton.
Meanwhile, J-D dropped a 1-0 decision for the second day in a row, having done the same against defending Section III Class A champion Oneida the day before.
All through those first nine innings, Keeler pitched into trouble – then pitched out of it, normally with a strikeout. She accumulated 20 K’s by the time it was done.
Three times in regulation, CBA put at least two runners on base, only to leave them stranded. Keeler struck out Maggie Fennell with the bases loaded in the fifth, did the same to Alexis Mento with two on in the sixth, and caught Claire Gollegly in a rundown between third and home as she tried to score the go-ahead run in the seventh on Fennell’s single.
Meanwhile, Sheridan had “only” 12 K’s, but three of them came in the bottom of the eighth as she struck out the side after Ashley Thompson reached base. Sheridan also gave up just four hits, while Keeler allowed seven hits.
So it went to the 10th inning, where by rule a runner is placed on second base at the start. Gollegly took the base for CBA, went to third on Sheridan’s sacrifice bunt, then raced home when Molly O’Brien drilled the first pitch she saw from Keeler to left field for a single.
When it was J-D’s turn in the bottom of the 10th, McIntyre took center stage. She went at full speed to catch a bunt pop-up from Rachel Bonis, keeping J-D’s runner, Lateja Bryant, on second with one out.
Maddy Devereaux was up next. Devereaux hit the ball hard – right at McIntyre, who made a running stab and, in one motion, tagged Bryant leaning off base for the final out.
In J-D’s game against Oneida, Maria Rocco, who succeeded Beth Kann as Oneida’s pitcher, held J-D to three hits, all singles, and her teammates did not commit an error despite the Rams’ hitters often putting the ball in play.
Keeler, for her part, also pitched a three-hitter, but Jenna Didio’s third-inning triple led to Clare Henry’s RBI and the game’s lone run.
After all this, the Red Rams rebounded with a sterling performance Thursday at Homer, registering a 6-4 victory over the Trojans.
Down 1-0, J-D got to Homer pitcher Alexis Brown for four runs in the top of the fourth, then added a pair of seventh-inning tallies for insurance.
Keeler gave up 11 hits, but constantly escaped trouble as she recorded seven strikeouts. Christina Oaster picked up two RBIs as Keeler doubled and drove in a run and Honis also had an RBI.
CBA, meanwhile, got its offense going in a 16-1 romp of Fowler, picking up 22 hits as it got four runs in the first, third and sixth innings. Sheridan only allowed two hits.
