Even as it was tearing through the early part of its schedule, the Solvay softball team knew that Altmar-Parish-Williamstown was doing the same, creating a two-team race atop the OHSL Liberty division.
More importantly, the Bearcats remembered how, in last year’s Section III Class B semifinals, the Rebels nearly ended Solvay’s season before it escaped with a 2-1 victory and eventually reached the state title game.
Their first meeting since that playoff classic came on Thursday afternoon. Solvay, no. 4 in the state Class B rankings, and APW, no. 17 in those same rankings, engaged in another high drama, with the Bearcats rallying late to force extra innings, and then beating the Rebels 7-4.
With a pair of first-inning runs, APW moved out in front. Pitcher Jackie Gardner settled down for the next three innings, escaping a bases-loaded jam in the fourth after her own RBI single cut the deficit in half.
The Rebels countered with a run in the fifth, and entering the top of the seventh, Solvay was still down, 3-1, having stranded the tying runs in the previous inning and wondering if its first defeat was imminent.
But Solvay dug deep, and after Jordyn Everett singled and Aleah Yaizzo doubled, Brandi Pidkaminy sent a drive so far into the field that she was able to race all the way around the bases, following Everett and Yaizzo to score an inside-the-park home run.
That gave the Bearcats a 4-3 lead, but APW wasn’t done, fighting for a run in the bottom of the seventh to tie it and force extra frames, and then getting out of trouble in the top of the eighth when Solvay put two runners on, but could not convert.
They were still 4-4 when, in the bottom of the ninth, the Rebels got the winning run to third base with nobody out. Somehow, Gardner did not let that potential winning run to cross the plate, and it went to the 10th, where international rules put a runner on second base to start the inning.
Molly McGuire promptly singled home Jackie Allen with the go-ahead run, and with two on, Jordan Micheletti smashed a single that scored McGuire and Maya Martineau.
Gardner then tossed a scoreless 10th inning to win it, finishing an effort where she surrendered 11 hits and three walks, but earned 11 strikeouts and, for good measure, went five-for-five at the plate
To tune up for APW, the Bearcats first flattened Jordan-Elbridge 21-0 last Monday afternoon, getting all of its runs in the first four innings, including a seven-run second, while Gardner struck out 16 Eagles and allowed just one hit, a double by Keelie Hotchkiss.
Yaizzo broke out with four hits, three runs scored and five RBIs. Pidkaminy doubled and drove in three runs, with Hope Riviera adding a pair of RBIs. Gardner and Allen both had a double and RBI.
Then Solvay had a non-league game at Jamesville-DeWitt on Wednesday afternoon, and with Lauren Nichols pitching, the Bearcats cruised past the Red Rams 10-2.
Steadily, the Bearcats built a 3-0 lead on J-D through three innings. Then, in the top of the fourth, it broke the game open when Chelsie Delperuto hit a two-run double and, moments later, Molly McGuire hit a two-run home run just over the center-field fence.
Nichols didn’t need any more help. Giving Gardner a rest before her epic battle with APW, Nichols held J-D to six hits and kept them off the scoreboard until the sixth inning, earning six strikeouts along the way and only surrendering one walk.
