On the heels of knocking off unbeaten, state no. 1-ranked Westhill on May 4, the Cazenovia baseball team had to follow it up with more wins to make sure it would get to the post-season. It did so, and moved above the .500 mark (8-7) in the process.
There certainly wasn’t a letdown in last Monday’s game at Hannibal, where the Lakers pounded the Warriors 11-1 in a game shortened to five innings by rain.
Trailing 1-0 after one inning, Cazenovia scored twice in the top of the second to move ahead for good. Then it waited until the fourth, where it got three runs to make it 5-1, and a six-run fifth inning followed as Hannibal committed six errors.
Billy Bigsby singled, doubled, walked and scored three runs, with Alex Szlamczynski also scoring three times. Jack Malmsheimer, Brian Gara, Mark Dewan and Chris Matteson each had one RBI. Dewan also pitched four innings of one-hit ball, striking out five.
The Lakers made it three in a row on Wednesday, blanking Jordan-Elbridge 5-0 behind Liam Rogers’ pitching. Rogers went six innings, holding the Eagles to four hits before Chad Warren worked the final inning in relief.
Warren’s solo home run in the third inning got Cazenovia in front, but two-run rallies in the fourth and sixth provided the cushion as David McEntee’s three hits led to a pair of RBIs. Bigsby and Darian Smith also drove in runs.
This led to Saturday’s game against Marcellus, who was riding a five-game win streak. But the Lakers put a halt to that charge, beating the Mustangs 8-3.
Most of it was done in the bottom of the first inning. Trailing 2-0, the Lakers jumped all over Marcellus starting pitcher Colin Smith (who had appeared in relief the day before), batting around and scoring six runs.
McEntee, who pitched 3 1/3 innings to earn the win and struck out seven, also doubled and got three RBIs. Warren drove in two runs, while Gara and Bigsby had one RBI apiece. Malmsheimer scored three times as Matteson relieved McEntee and had his own 3 1/3 inning stint that included four strikeouts.
On the softball side, Cazenovia, also in a scramble to get to the sectional playoffs, broke out of its offensive doldrums early in last Monday’s game at Hannibal and managed to get the full seven innings in before the rains arrived as it beat the Warriors by a score of 18-7.
Quickly, the Lakers struck, getting seven runs in the top of the first. Then, with the score 9-2, Cazenovia added five more runs in the fifth and four runs in the seventh.
Josie Chiarello and Maggie Johnson both hit home runs, as Chiarello finished with five RBIs and Johnson got four RBis, each of them career marks.
Holly Gamlen, Sarah Liddell, Haley O’Brien and Nicole Chiarello also drove in runs as Nicole also recorded 13 strikeouts in a complete-game pitching effort.
The Lakers made it back-to-back wins on Wednesday, stopping Jordan-Elbridge 4-1, though this required some late heroics to back up Nicole White’s two-hit pitching and nine strikeouts.
It was tied, 1-1, when in the bottom of the sixth Cazenovia broke through against Eagles pitcher Alexis Rouse for three decisive runs. O’Brien tripled and scored as Gamlen, Rachel McLaughlin and Nicole Chiarello scored one run apiece.
Games at Solvay and Homer await both of the Cazenovia diamond sides before the sectional playoff pairings are announced on Sunday.
