Given the skid that it went through in the latter stages of the regular season, the Skaneateles baseball team welcomed any sort of good news before it got too late.
Luke Drancsak provided that good news in last Wednesday’s game at Jordan-Elbridge, pitching a three-hit shutout as the Lakers defeated the Eagles 6-0.
Allowing just one walk, Drancsak struck out nine J-E batters, and what helped him relax was Skaneateles jumping on Eagles pitcher Ryan Cooper for four runs in the top of the first inning.
Cooper settled down, but the Lakers still got single tallies in the fourth and sixth innings for a further cushion. Conor Herr and Kieran Daley each had two hits, with Daley getting a triple and Herr belting a double while scoring two runs. Drancsak, Daley, Sepp Martin and Nick Tortora each scored one run.
As a follow-up, the Lakers returned home and smashed Tully 14-5, breaking it open with five runs in the bottom of the second inning and tacking on four runs in the third on its way to a 12-1 margin before the Black Knights could respond.
Martin finished with a team-high three RBIs, while Daley drove in two runs. Drancsak walked three times and scored a run every time he got on base, while Herr, Tortora and Connor Hurley each scored twice. Will Dougherty and Collin Jones added one RBI apiece.
Those wins helped Skaneateles earn the no. 12 seed for the Section III Class B playoffs, and a first-round game Tuesday at no. 5 seed Cazenovia, a team it lost to twice during the regular season, by margins of 6-2 and 12-0.
If the Lakers could turn that around, it would advance to Thursday’s quarterfinal against Solvay or Adirondack.
