With an OHSL Liberty division regular-season title within reach, the Cazenovia softball team endured a week full of excitement and high performance to make sure it stayed right with Westhill, and ahead of Phoenix, for that top spot.
A trio of wins set up the Lakers for Friday’s showdown with Phoenix that would determine whether it would have, at the least, a share of the league crown.
Somehow, Cazenovia pulled it off, going through nine innings of tension before Taylor Malmsheimer’s clutch drama produced a 2-1 victory over the Firebirds – and that piece of the league title with Westhill.
Much of the contest was a first-rate pitching battle between the Lakers’ Nicole Chiarello and the Firebirds’ Brittany Sears. Neither side gave up a run until the fourth, when Phoenix’s Sarah Bregg tripled and came home on Sears’ grounder.
From that point forward, Chiarello cooled down the Firebirds, allowing seven hits and one walk, but constantly escaping trouble as she struck out 10.
As if that wasn’t enough, Chiarello stepped up to the plate in the top of the sixth and, after Belle Hoagland’s double, drilled a single that brought Hoagland home to tie it 1-1.
So it remained, through the seventh and eighth innings, as Chiarello and Sears restored some order, waiting for someone to blink.
Finally, in the top of the ninth, Korena Fenton singled, her second hit of the day. That brought up Malmsheimer, who doubled deep enough for Fenton to race home with the go-ahead run.
In the bottom of the ninth, Chiarello retired the first two batters she faced. With the tying run in scoring position, a liner got hit right at Malmsheimer. When the baserunner ran into Malmsheimer, she was called out, ending the game.
A snow-induced postponement of the Lakers’ April 27 trip to Hannibal forced the Lakers and Warriors to play a doubleheader (two five-inning games) last Monday afternoon.
The first game proved dramatic, as a late run allowed Cazenovia to edge Hannibal 6-5. A wild first inning saw the Lakers score three times and the Warriors counter with four runs to move out in front.
Even when a pair of second-inning tallies pushed the Lakers back in front 5-4, it could not get away, as Hannibal tied it in the third. Not until Cazenovia scored in the top of the fifth, and Chiarello got the final three outs, could the Lakers escape.
Malsheimer scored twice, had two hits and added an RBI as Hoagland, Meghan Kurucz and Tina Gilliland also drove in runs. Lindsay Easterly contributed a double.
The second game saw Cazenovia blank Hannibal 6-0, getting three runs in each of the first two innings in support of Chiarello, who gave up just two hits while striking out seven.
Fenton’s two hits and two runs scored provided that early spark, as Emily Mastropaolo earned a pair of RBIs and Melanie Arehart joined Fenton with one RBI apiece.
Next for Cazenovia was its Wednesday meeting with the other Lakers from Skaneateles – and it led to another victory, this one by a comfortable 12-6 margin.
Single runs in each of the first four innings gave Cazenovia a 4-2 edge, but it really broke out in the fifth, batting around and getting six runs to extend its margin to 10-2.
By game’s end, Kara Stadler had three hits and three runs scored, one of eight different Cazenovia players to cross the plate. Emily Mastropaolo and Abby Eschen each had two hits, with Malmsheimer and Mastropaolo producing two RBIs apiece. Chiarello (the winning pitcher), Arehart and Fenton drove in single runs.
That set up Phoenix – and a dramatic ending to a 15-3 regular season as the Section III Class B playoffs start this week.
It does so with the Lakers as the no. 3 seed in Class B, meeting no. 14 seed Lowville at Veterans’ Park. A win means another home game in the quarterfinals against a familiar league rival, Phoenix or Marcellus – with Westhill looming as a potential semifinal foe, if the seeds hold. So there might be a tie-breaker after all.
