If it wanted to move up in the OHSL Liberty division, the Skaneateles baseball team knew that it would have to chase down Westhill at some point.
The Lakers would try to do so last Monday as part of the annual Strike Out Lou Gehrig’s Disease Classic at NBT Bank Stadium, and kept up with the Warriors for a while before a late surge pushed Westhill to prevail in an 8-3 decision.
Skaneateles tied the game, 1-1, on a fielder’s choice that scored Jim Dranscak in the top of the second. An inning later, a walk, single and sacrifice bunt led to Jake Reed’s RBI groundout that put the Lakers in front, 2-1.
Westhill tied it, 2-2, only to have Skaneateles regain the lead in the fourth thanks to a walk, wild pitch and RBI single where John Teixeira brought home Max Goldman.
Not long after, Joe Sweeny replaced Mike Burton on the mound for Westhill, and Sweeny proceeded to blank the Lakers the rest of the way, tossing 3 1/3 shutout innings and holding the Lakers to three hits.
It was still 3-2 in Skaneateles’ favor when, in the bottom of the fifth, Teixeira, the starting pitcher, surrendered three runs, and Westhill tacked on three more runs against Teixeira and his relief replacement, Joe Buck, an inning later.
The loss didn’t bother Skaneateles too much, for once it went back home on Wednesday, it had an impressive effort against visiting Cazenovia, winning that Laker duel by an 11-3 margin.
A day later, the two sides met again at the Sean Googin Sports Complex, and it turned into a wild affair, but the margin ended up the same as Skaneateles, by a score of 21-13, completed the two-game sweep.
The second game had Skaneateles gain six runs in the top of the second and Cazenovia answer with five runs in the bottom of the second. Even as the exchange continued, Skaneateles gradually increased its lead, to 13-8, and with a five-run fifth inning, it pulled out of Cazenovia’s range.
Marc Pietropaoli went five-for-six to lead Skaneateles’ 17-hit attack, scoring four runs and earning three RBIs. Drancsak doubled, singled twice and drove in four runs, with Josh McCabe adding two hits and two RBIs. Teixeira and Noah Cliff each scored four runs and joined Kyler Viggiano, the trio each earning a single RBI.
None of this good work carried over into Friday’s doubleheader against Phoenix. The Lakers lost the opening game to the Firebirds 10-6 and dropped the second game by an 8-2 margin.
In the first game, Phoenix scored at least one run in every single inning, and the Lakers could not quite counter it despite three hits from Pietropaoli and two hits from Teixeira, who scored twice. McCabe and Jake Reed had one RBI apiece as Drancsak pitched six innings and took the loss.
The second game was like the first, with steady Phoenix run production. The Firebirds scored twice in the third, fourth and fifth innings to break up a 1-1 tie.
Drancsak and Mike King drove in the Skaneateles runs, but Phoenix’s Alan Ashby pitched 5 2/3 innings for the win and also had three RBIs. Buck and Viggiano shared the Lakers’ pitching duties, with Buck earning seven strikeouts in his 4 2/3 innings, but walking nine.
