Though the Cazenovia baseball team knew it could win games when Kevin Ridings pitched, it found a lot more difficulty on other occasions.
One example was last Monday’s game against Hannibal, where the Lakers led late, but could not hold on in a 6-3 defeat to the Warriors.
Cooper Holgate got the start, and for four innings he was solid, limiting Hannibal to one run. Meanwhile, the Lakers, with single runs in the fourth and fifth innings, sneaked into a 2-1 lead.
Then, in the bottom of the fifth, Hannibal chased Holgate for two runs. Ridings, working on short rest, gave up three runs in the bottom of the sixth, the eventual margin.
Casey Fenton doubled and drove in a run, with Paul McLaughlin and Noah Race adding RBIs of their own, but no Cazenovia batter had more than one hit against Hannibals’ Taber Carter, who threw a complete game and held the Lakers to five hits overall.
It didn’t get easier for the Lakers on Thursday afternoon, when it visited OHSL Liberty American division leader Westhill and could not get much going in an 11-1 defeat to the Warriors.
In each of the first two innings, Cazenovia stranded runners on third, and Westhill made the Lakers pay with a five-run outburst in the second, keyed by two-run doubles from Ryan Roland and Sam Walsh off Lakers starter Jake Schettine.
It was 8-0 before Cazenovia got its lone run in the top of the sixth, Schettine scoring on Peter Decew’s single. Evan Begley and Alex Marshall both pitched in relief of Schettine, who managed two of the Lakers’ six hits for the afternoon.
In Friday night’s game against Solvay at Onondaga Community College, the Lakers’ fast start ended up meaning little in a 15-4 defeat to the Bearcats.
Begley, Schettine, Cyle Dennis and Kevin Ridings all drove in runs in the top of the first, putting Cazenovia in front 4-0. Solvay countered with three runs in its first two innings and then, in the bottom of the fourth, erupted for 11 runs off four different Cazenovia pitchers. Jeff Honsinger, Sammy Kippen and Mike Yiazzo would lead the Bearcats with three RBIs apiece.
Chittenango, meanwhile, was 4-5, coming off a narrow defeat to defending Section III Class A champion Jamesville-DeWitt on May 2, when it resumed action five days later against visiting Mexico and lost a 5-2 decision to the Tigers.
After an exchange of first-inning runs, Mexico got to Bears starting pitcher Seamus St. Ledger with a run in the third and two runs in the fourth.
Dane Johnson settled things down in a 3 1/3 inning relief stint, but Chittenango could not catch up, only tacking on a run in the sixth as Johnson and Zane Garvey had one RBI apiece. All told, the Bears had just four hits against Tigers starter Josh Washer, who pitched a complete game.
But when the two sides met again, at Mexico, on Saturday afternoon, it turned into a showcase for Wyatt Myers as he threw the first no-hitter of his varsity career and helped the Bears shut out the Tigers 8-0.
Though far from perfect – he allowed five walks and a hit batsman, and Chittenango had an error – Myers prevented any Mexico batter from safely reaching base, recording 11 strikeouts.
A five-run second inning broke the game open, and Myers was in the middle of the attack, too, with two hits, two runs scored and an RBI. John Murray, Joe Murray, Jack Wandersee, Zane Cowburn and Justin Gondeck also drove in runs.
