With plenty of room left to improve, the Skaneateles baseball team did not like it when bad weather returned early last week, causing more postponements.
Just before the rains, the Lakers faced Phoenix last Monday afternoon, and one big inning proved decisive as it lost, 7-2, to the Firebirds.
Phoenix never trailed, notching single runs in the first three innings against Skaneateles pitcher Paul Musso. Sepp Martin helped the Lakers stay close with a solo home run and single, scoring both of his team’s runs as John Teixeira also crossed the plate.
With the score 3-2 in the top of the sixth, Musso got roughed up, Phoenix putting together a four-run rally to give itself a cushion, and though reliever Jim Drancsak ended the threat, the Lakers could not answer.
Bryce Plante and Zach Wells led the Firebirds with two hits apiece as pitchers Dan Frawley and Emilio Tassone combined to strike out eight Laker batters.
Still with four games to make up from previous rainouts, the Lakers hoped to host Solvay on Wednesday but the bad weather led to another postponement.
The weather dried up in time, though, for a non-league game Thursday against Tully, where the Lakers, with a run in the bottom of the seventh inning, edged past the Black Knights 2-1.
For a long while, it looked like the single run Skaneateles scraped across in the bottom of the fourth inning would hold up, as Nick Hyland was pitching a shutout. But that 1-0 lead vanished when Tully tied it in the top of the seventh.
Unfazed by this, the Lakers, who had struggled all game long against Black Knights pitchers Zac Fritz and Aaron Wintermute, jumped on reliever Danny Goodbread in the bottom of the seventh to put home the winning run.
Martin had two of the Lakers’ six hits, plus an RBI, while Jake Reed drove in the other run. Teixeira and Jarrett McDonald scored the runs to help out Hyland, who limited Tully to four hits and three walks and struck out eight.
Then the Lakers returned to league play on Friday afternoon, hosting Altmar-Parish-Williamstown, and jumped out early before hanging on to beat the Rebels 6-3.
A run in the first inning, plus a three-run outburst in the second, gave Skaneateles a quick 4-0 edge. APW struck for all of its runs in the top of the fifth to cut the gap to 4-3, but the Lakers restored its cushion by scoring twice in the bottom of that frame.
Teixeira pitched until the fifth, when Drancsak took over. Going three innings in relief, Drancsak earned the save as he and Teixeira combined to strike out 10 Rebel hitters. Martin led the way at the plate with two hits and three RBIs, while Texeira and Jake Reed drove in single runs.
