As far as Solvay softball coach Phil Merrill is concerned, all he’s trying to do is stay out of the way of his talented players as they set out for championship glory.
Technically, Westhill was in the way of the Bearcats Friday afternoon – but not for long. In the only regular-season meeting between the two neighborhood rivals, Solvay hit from beginning to end and flattened the Warriors 19-1.
It didn’t take long for the Bearcats to light up Westhill pitcher Kelly Mascari, as it scored five times in the top of the first inning. Nicole Antonacci led off with a double, and Warrior errors led to three runs before Kiersten DiBello managed a two-run double.
Single runs followed in the second and third inning (one of them brought home by Molly McGuire’s double), but the game broke open in the fourth, when Solvay again batted around and tacked on six more runs to make it 13-0.
Delperuto led off with a solo home run, followed by run-scoring hits from DiBello, Brenna Poli and Antonacci, and it didn’t stop there, either. After a run in the fifth, Solvay scored three times in the sixth inning and twice more in the seventh on Antonacci’s two-run homer.
Meanwhile, Jackie Gardner pitched steadily for the Bearcats, keeping the Warriors off the board, other than Katie Lobello’s solo home run, in her complete-game effort.
Both sides breezed through the preliminaries early in the week, Solvay (who like Westhill had seen its planned April 20 tournament canceled due to weather) returning to the field last Monday and blanking Marcellus 14-0.
A three-run first inning put the Bearcats in front, but it didn’t stop there, Solvay getting to Molly MacLachlan for 18 hits overall as it got three runs in the third and four runs in both the fourth and fifth innings.
Jackie Gardner pitched a complete-game shutout and gave up as many hits (four) as she got at the plate. Antonacci and Shanen Sullivan each had three hits. McGuire and Sydney Cimini both earned three RBIs as Sullivan and DiBello drove in two runs apiece. Julie Gardner scored three times.
It was Delperuto taking over in Wednesday’s 7-0 shutout of Chittenango, hitting a home run, triple and double, scoring three runs and earning three RBIs as Julie Gardner also scored three times, joining DiBello and Poli with one RBI apiece. Jackie Gardner held the Bears to three hits, amassing 13 strikeouts along the way.
Meanwhile, Westhill crushed Skaneateles 26-2 last Monday, getting eight runs in the first inning and six runs in the third and fourth innings, plus five runs in the fifth.
Mascari, who hit four home runs in a game at Skaneateles a year earlier, managed two doubles and four RBIs here, leading an attack where all 10 Westhill batters drove in at least one run and scored at least once.
Maggie Liberati had four hits and four RBIs, while Lobello hit the Warriors’ only home run, joining Mackenzie Davis and Nina Scramale with two RBIs apiece as Abby Bornstein drove in three runs. Davis, Lobello and Kathleen Clark each scored four runs.
More runs followed for the Warriors a day later in an 18-0 shutout of Chittenango, where Westhill scored in every inning, capped by a seven-run outburst in the second, and piled up 21 hits.
Mascari had three of those hits, including a home run, and got four RBIs as she combined with Scramale to pitch a three-hit shutout that included 12 Ks.
Clark drove in three runs as she, along with Liberati, Lobello and Claire Hewitt, each pounded out three hits. Bornstein matched Clark’s three-RBI output as Lobello, Hewitt and Davis drove in two runs apiece.
