Before the middle of April, the Solvay softball team had already earned impressive victories over two of its toughest OHSL Liberty division neighbors.
Coming off its 15-0 shutout over Westhill on April 12, the Bearcats ventured to Marcellus two days later and had its lowest run total of the season, but still rolled past the Mustangs 9-1.
Though Marcellus had not yet played a game this spring, it showed little rust in the early going as pitcher Molly MacLachlan managed to keep the potent Bearcats off the board in the first two innings.
However, in the top of the third, Solvay broke through, scoring three runs, and it added four runs in the fourth to make it 7-0, far out of the Mustangs’ reach.
Jordan Micheletti had the big blow when she hit her first home run of the season, part of a three-hit performance that included three RBIs. Chelsie Delperuto scored twice and drove in a pair of runs, while Brenna Poli and Nicole Antonacci scored two runs apiece. Poli, Molly McGuire, Jackie Gardner and Sydney Cimini each drove in one run.
Marcellus’ lone run came in the bottom of the fifth, as Shannon Donahue doubled home Jayme Lema, but Gardner gave up nothing else on the board, holding the Mustangs to just two hits (Emily Martens had the other) as notching nine strikeouts, while MacLachlan had four strikes.
And just before the Bearcats ventured to Orlando for a tournament appearance at the Disney Wide World of Sports complex, it got another big win on Saturday, stopping red-hot West Genesee 7-3.
Both teams were unbeaten, and WG had just stunned defending state Class AA champion Cicero-North Syracuse 1-0 two days earlier. And it was close here, too, before the Bearcats used a five-run fourth inning to take charge.
McGuire earned three of Solvay’s 15 hits, gaining three RBIs. Delperuto and Micheletti also had three-hit outings as Gardner pitched a complete game and moved to 5-0 on the spring.
Before Westhill saw its game with Marcellus postponed, it did play at Cazenovia last Monday and just beat the impending rain, edging the Lakers 7-6 in eight innings.
After seeing an early 2-0 lead vanish in the third and fourth innings, the Warriors, trailing 4-2, went back in front with four runs in the top of the fifth. Again, though, Cazenovia rallied, tying it, 4-4, in the bottom of the seventh.
Finally, in the top of the eighth Westhill used a run to edge back in front, and Katie Lobello, pitching in relief after Melissa Newcomb went all seven innings in regulation, earned the final three outs for a hard-earned save.
Claire Hewitt’s solo home run was part of an effort where Nina Scramale managed three RBIs and Jordan Tucker managed a double and two RBIs. Newcomb had three hits, two runs scored and an RBI as Leah Diefendorf doubled and drove in a run.
Bishop Ludden took a 3-1 defeat to Rome Free Academy, a game where Emily Tills scored in the top of the second to erase a 1-0 deficit, but the Black Knights used a pair of sixth-inning runs to move in front for good.
Those late runs negated a terrific pitching performance from Cazzandra Griglock, who managed eight strikeouts and held RFA to three hits. Combined, Ally Weigand had two of those hits as two Black Knights pitchers, Alyssa Fazio and Alicia Swavely, combined for 10 strikeouts.
