Though it was a small sample size – two games – a closer examination showed that the Baldwinsville softball team just might be ready to make a championship push in both the CNY Counties League and the Section III Class AA ranks.
Following its week of work at Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, the Bees returned home last Monday and promptly got into a marathon with visiting West Genesee, requiring 11 innings, and a late comeback, to edge the Wildcats 4-3.
Down 2-0, B’ville tied it in the bottom of the fourth with a pair of runs. Then it settled into a long stalemate, Keanna Wolcik piling up strikeouts (14 in all) while WG’s Allie Nave allowed 10 hits, but kept getting out of trouble.
In the 10th inning, Emma Bernet replaced Wolcik in the pitcher’s circles. Bernet pitched a scoreless 10th, but in the top of the 11th WG got to her for the go-ahead runs.
Trailing once more, 3-2, the Bees showed its character and figured out Nave, bringing home the tying and winning runs to end the long battle. Elizabeth Johns and Caroline May each had two hits, while Sarah Lalla scored a pair of runs.
At least the Bees got a chance to recover before going up against perennial powerhouse Cicero-North Syracuse Thursday at the Gillette Road complex, a team reeling from its first-ever defeat to Central Square two days earlier.
Quickly, it was apparent that the Northstars had not recovered from that loss, and B’ville made them pay for it, as everything, from pitching to defense to timely hitting, was on display in a 4-1 victory over C-NS.
A walk, sacrifice bunt, wild pitch and Serena Capsello’s bloop single produced a run in the top of the first, and the Bees made it 2-0 in the third when May streaked home, beating the tag, on Wolcik’s hard grounder.
Taking advantage of a pair of C-NS fielding mistakes, the Bees added a third run in the fifth inning, and then extended the lead to 4-0 an inning later thanks to May’s two-out RBI single.
All the while, Wolcik was mixing up speeds on her pitches and utterly baffling the C-NS hitters. Other than a run in the bottom of the sixth, Wolcik kept the Northstars off the board, surrendering just five hits while amassing a season-best 13 strikeouts.
These wins gives B’ville all kinds of momentum going into Monday’s showdown with defending Class AA champion Liverpool, part of a week that, weather permitting, will also include games against Fayetteville-Manlius and Auburn before it returns to Gillette Sunday to play state Class B champion Eden.
