In their own ways, the West Genesee baseball and softball teams both started 2011 with victories on a sun-drenched Thursday afternoon.
That meant extra work for the baseball Wildcats, who saw Corcoran push them to nine innings before pulling out a 4-3 victory over the Cougars.
Snowed out of its opener at defending Section III Class AA champion Auburn two days earlier, WG gave the ball to ace pitcher Eric Spencer, who was stingy – except for a fourth inning where Corcoran got all of its runs to take a 3-1 lead.
WG stayed patient, though, and tied it, 3-3, with a two-run rally in the sixth inning. There it remained until the bottom of the ninth when, with Greg Wadach on base, Brian Burns’ single brought Wadach home with the winning run.
Spencer struck out five in his seven innings of work before Matt Naton tossed two hitless innings of relief to earn the win. Naton, Wadach and Erik Krohl each got two hits, with Dave Salvagni scoring a pair of runs and Spencer adding an RBI.
As this went on, WG’s softball team got its job done in regulation against Central Square, beating the Red Hawks 6-3.
Returning most of its lineup from 2010, coach Jeff Ross’s Wildcats have championship ambitions, and made it past Central Square despite a shaky outing from pitcher Ashley Amidon, who allowed nine hits but just one walk.
With the game tied 1-1, WG broke it open with two-run rallies in both the third and fourth innings. Makenzie Glynn had two hits as Trish Andrews, Lexie Myers, Christina Sakran, Gabby Rivers and Katie Regin each scored one run.
