Challenges were found everywhere for the Skaneateles baseball team as the weather continued to get warmer, along with excitement generated from a week where three different games were decided by a single run, and only one of them went in the Lakers’ favor.
The baseball Lakers engaged in a thriller with red-hot Solvay last Monday afternoon, a game with multiple comeback and rallies before Skaneateles took a painful 8-7 defeat to the Bearcats.
Three different times in regulation, Skaneateles led by a run, at 3-2, 4-3 and 5-4, but each time Solvay came back to pull even, doing so once more in the sixth to create a 5-5 tie.
It stayed that way until the top of the ninth, when Solvay chased Skaneateles starter John Teixeira and then got three runs off his relief replacements, Kyler Viggiano and Max Goldman.
Solvay’s Sammy Kippen had taken over in the fourth inning after stints from Brandon Franklin and John Rutkowski, and he nearly blew that 8-5 lead in the bottom of the ninth, the Lakers scoring twice before Kippen was able to record the final out.
Max Goldman and Noah Cliff each got three hits for the Lakers, with Jim Drancsak scoring twice. Teixeira, Goldman, Jake Reed and Josh McCabe had one RBI apiece. On Solvay’s side, Jeff Honsinger hit a home run and Kippen got three hits, scoring twice.
Against rival Marcellus a day later, it proved just as exciting, but this time it was Skaneateles finishing off a comeback from a three-run deficit to beat the Mustangs 6-5.
A first-inning run had the Lakers in front, 1-0. But Marcellus tied it in the second and then, in the top of the third, scored three more times to seize a 4-1 advantage.
Marcellus maintained that lead until the bottom of the sixth Skaneateles lit up relievers Tyler Manthey and Noah Hunt for four runs to go in front, 5-4.
Somehow, the Mustangs recovered from this to tie it again, 5-5, in the top of the seventh. Hunt, pitching in the bottom of the seventh, allowed two runners to get on base, and Marc Pietropaoli would race home with the decisive run.
Goldman shook off his rough start to pitch a complete game, allowing seven hits and striking out five. He also had two RBIs at the plate as Viggiano and Teixeira each had two hits and one RBI. Drancsak added a pair of hits.
Skaneateles won again on Thursday, outscoring Moravia 18-11 in a crazy game where the Blue Devils scored eight runs in the top of the second, but the Lakers pulled within 8-4 and then exploded with an 11-run fourth-inning rally to go in front for good.
Amid the tumult, Dranscak went four-for-four with four RBIs. Reed and Adam Lupo each drove in three runs, with Teixeira adding three hits, three runs scored and two RBIs. Pietropaoli had a hit, two walks and four runs scored, while Viggiano added an RBI.
In Saturday’s game at Bishop Grimes, the Lakers again had a one-run decision, and just like with Solvay, it ended in a defeat, this one by a 3-2 margin in eight innings.
Drancsak and Reed drove in first-inning runs, but Skaneateles got nothing more against Cobras pitcher Trevor Pokines, who went all eight frames and limited the Lakers to five hits, two of them from Drancsak.
Getting his turn on the mound, Drancsak maintained the shutout until the fifth, when Grimes scored twice and tied it, 2-2, later getting the decisive run in the eighth.
On the softball side, Skaneateles welcomed defending Section III Class B champion Solvay last Monday, who promptly defeated the Lakers 19-1 sprinting to a 7-0 lead in the first two innings and adding an eight-run outburst in the top of the fourth.
Bearcats pitcher Jackie Gardner, gave up just two hits, one each to Ali Tomlinson and Madison Rufo, whose hit scored Tomlinson with the lone Skaneateles run in the bottom of the second. Solvay’ Chelsie Deperuto smashed a pair of home run, added a double as part of a four-hit, six-RBI effort.
Then Altmar-Parish-Williamstown, showed up Wednesday, and the Lakers lost, 22-0, to the Rebels, who scored 17 runs in the first two innings. Jordynn Richards, Tara Chalupnicki and Marysa Corona got hits as APW’s DeShae Jones hit two home runs and finished with six RBIs.
On Friday afternoon, the Lakers got on the board, but still lost, 17-3, to Bishop Grimes, the tallies coming when Skaneateles scored twice in the fifth inning and again in the seventh. Margaret Canty, Madison Rufo and Meghan Tortora earned one RBI apiece.
