As if having a perfect record and a firm grip on the OHSL Liberty division wasn’t enough, the Bishop Ludden baseball team recently added another title – the top-ranked Class B team in the entire state.
Being at the top means the Gaelic Knights are a much larger target, yet no one has caught them yet.
And that included Skaneateles, who sat second in the OHSL Liberty division and went after Ludden Thursday afternoon- but ran into John Rooney and Matt Pirro, who led the Gaelic Knights to an 8-2 victory and a 15-0 mark.
It was Pirro’s turn on the mound, and over six innings of work the junior right-hander handcuffed Skaneateles with 13 strikeouts, against just two hits and one walk.
The help came quite early, as Ludden got to Skaneateles for three runs in both the first and second innings for a 6-0 lead. Single runs followed in the third and fifth, and it was 8-0 before the Lakers got on the board in the late going.
Through it all, Rooney kept pounding the ball at the plate. He had three of Ludden’s seven hits, including a home run, scored twice and finished with a pair of RBIs.
Chris Davis doubled and drove in a run, while Mike DePalma scored three times. Pirro, James Murray and Ryan O’Kane each joined Davis in the RBI column as O’Kane pitched the final inning, too.
Before all this, the Gaelic Knights had lost an opportunity at further glory when wild weatehr wiped out Utica-Notre Dame’s tournament at DeLutis Field in Rome on May 8.
Yet Ludden did gain some rest — and when it resumed play Wednesday against Hannibal, the pitching again was sharp as the Gaelic Knights beat the Warriors 3-0.
Murray, whose last outing was a 3-1 victory over Westhill on May 3, gave up just a single hit, to Curtis Baker in the top of the sixth inning, plus two walks. Otherwise, Murray proved too baffling as he gained 13 strikeouts.
Ludden, for its part, had just six hits against Hannibal pitcher Blaine Taylor, but got single runs in the first, fourth and sixth innings. Aaron Maher had two of those hits, with Davis gaining an RBI as Maher, Pirro and Matt Weeks scored the runs.
After some rest, the Bishop Ludden softball team returned on Thursday and improved its mark to 15-1, blanking Cato-Meridian 10-0 as Korey Kibling threw a two-hitter that featured 19 strikeouts.
Though it didn’t get on the board until the third inning, the Gaelic Knights quickly got comfortable at the plate, with two runs in both the fourth and fifth and a five-run sixth.
Catie Graf and Kristen Ryan each had two RBIs, with Beth Jerome, Kayla Kibling, Grace Rooney and Korey Kibling scoring two runs apiece. Jerome and Kayla Kibling each drove in a run.