With the weather a bit warmer (and much drier), Cazenovia’s baseball team plunged into the heart of its OHSL Liberty division schedule, having its up-and-down moments, but mostly finding success.
A peak moment was Friday’s neighborhood battle between the Lakers and the Chittenango Bears. Before the winds and rain shortened the contest to five innings, Cazenovia did more than enough damage, putting away the Bears 15-0.
Between them, Liam Rogers and Will Fellows held Chittenango to just one hit, but the real story for the Lakers was at the plate, where it got an early 3-0 lead and then batted around in the third and fourth innings, getting six runs in each frame, helped by the Bears committing five errors.
Rogers and Carson Clabeaux each scored three runs, with Clabeaux managing two hits and an RBI. Evan Cornell drove in two runs as Brodie Kellish, Cullen Franz, Mark Dewan, Ryker Smith, Billy Rankin and Noah King each had one RBI. Matt Cretaro had Chittenango’s lone hit as Josh Cretaro pitched and took the loss.
Before all this, the Lakers visited Solvay last Monday and used the big inning, plus strong mound work from Rogers and Chris Matteson, to romp past the Bearcats 13-1.
Here, the fun started early as Cazenovia scored five runs in the top of the first inning off Solvay pitcher Dan Fantacone. Four more runs followed in the fourth, knocking out Fantacone, and the Lakers touched up reliever Sal Dahlin for four runs in the sixth, all of this aided by a porous Solvay defense that committed an incredible 11 errors.
Thus, Cazenovia got double-digit runs despite just seven hits, two of them by Smith. Kelish scored three runs as Franz, Warren and Dewan each crossed the plate twice. Franz also had a pair of RBIs, as did Rogers.
In his pitching effort, Rogers, in five innings, surrendered five hits, but did not walk anyone and got error-free defense behind him, a stark contrast to Solvay’s struggles. Matteson went the final two innings in relief.
But Cazenovia would trip up at Hannibal two days later, never leading against the Warriors and unable to catch up in the late going of a 4-3 defeat.
Hannibal got to Jeff Dewan in the first two innings, sprinting in front 3-0, and for the rest of the afternoon the Lakers were in catch-up mode, staying in it thanks to strong relief pitching from Matteson.
Trailing 4-1, it scored twice in the sixth, but could not tie things up against Warriors ace Greg Pitcher, who would get the final outs.
Cazenovia managed just five hits against Pitcher, with Jeff Stowell getting a double and RBI and Warren also driving in a run. Kellish, Smith and Billy Bigsby each scored one run as Chris Benedict led Hannibal with a double and two RBIs.
Aside from playing Phoenix and Marcellus this week, Cazenovia also hoped to face CBA on Monday in a non-league game added to the schedule earlier this month.
At the start of its week, Chittenango lost, 11-0, to Skaneateles in last Monday’s season opener, unable to get much against Lakers pitching ace Luke Drancsak, who gave up just three hits and struck out 13. Josh Cretaro, Matt Cretaro and Ryan Malloy got those hits.
Sean Cliff pitched for the Bears and kept it close until the fourth, when Skaneateles erupted for five runs, tacking on four more runs in the fifth against reliever Josh Cretaro. Sepp Martin and Conor Herr both hit home runs for the Lakers.
A wild 15-12 defeat to Marcellus followed, a game where the Bears were close, only trailing 5-4, before the Mustangs erupted for 10 runs in the top of the sixth inning.
Still, Chittenango nearly made it all the way back, scoring four times in the sixth and seventh innings before the rally fell just short. Cliff and Matt Cretaro each went four-for-five with two RBIs, while Josh Cretaro and Nick Bailey got two hits apiece. Mike Hastings led Marcellus with four hits and four RBIs.
