Though it faced a lot of work in the last week of the regular season, the Baldwinsville softball team relished the chance to build up some momentum as it got nearer to the Section III Class AA playoffs.
B’ville, in fact, won three straight games, including a 4-3 conquest of defending Class A champion Phoenix, before running into Cicero-North Syracuse on Thursday afternoon and taking a 5-1 defeat.
Yet the Bees showed that it could hang close to the reigning Class AA dynasty. Aside from a rough first inning where hard hits and an error led to three Northstars runs off Liz Campbell, the game was played on fairly even terms.
It was still 3-0 when, thanks to a walk, hit batsman and infield hit from Isabella May, the Bees got on the board against C-NS ace Sydney O’Hara in the bottom of the second inning.
More was threatened in the bottom of the third when Maggie Deredita doubled to the wall with one out. Deredita, however, tried to stretch it into a triple, and was tagged out at third. B’ville never got close to scoring again, as O’Hara did not allow a hit in the ensuing 4 1/3 innings and finished with 14 strikeouts.
This followed, by 24 hours, the big win over Phoenix, earned as much through poise as by execution.
Three times in the first four innings, the Bees poked across runs against Firebirds ace Brittany Sears to take a 3-0 lead. And pitcher Keanna Wolcik protected that lead with six shutout innings.
However, in the top of the seventh, Phoenix rallied to tie it, 3-3, requiring Campbell to get the final two outs in that frame. Unfazed, the Bees got to Trisha Hetko, who relieved Sears, for the winning run in the bottom of the seventh.
Sydney Carlucci and Jessica Testa both got credit for an RBI as Amy Sidorakis scored twice. Wolcik and Isabella May scored the other runs.
In last Monday’s game at Fayetteville-Manlius, the Bees stayed patient, waited for the right moment to strike – and then did so to beat the Hornets 3-0.
For four innings, Campbell and F-M’s Madeline Gerbig traded zeroes. Then, in the top of the fifth, B’ville got to Gerbig for all of its runs.
With two on, Sayler brought home May and Sidorakis with a triple to the gap. Then Deredita followed with a single that scored Sayler.
Campbell needed nothing more, on her way to five-hit shutout where she gave up just five hits and amassed 12 strikeouts along the way.
B’ville was more impressive a day later, when it went to Oswego and wasted little time getting its offense going on its way to an 8-2 victory over the Buccaneers.
Both sides got first-inning runs, but the Bees broke a 2-2 tie with a run in the second and broke it open with three more runs in the top of the fourth.
Sidorakis triggered the lineup, going four-for-four, including a triple, scoring three times and finishing with two RBIs. Sayler scored two runs as Deredita managed two hits and an RBI. Sydney Carlucci also drove in a run.
Meanwhile, Campbell settled down from the first inning onward. For the game, she allowed just two hits and four walks, striking out eight.
