At least for a couple of games, the Cazenovia softball team’s method of earning victories involves putting up enough runs to withstand the production of the opposition.
Three days after surviving a 20-19 battle with Jordan-Elbridge on May 1, the Lakers got into another wild fight with Hannibal last Monday afternoon, again going deep into double digits and again winning by a one-run margin, edging the Warriors 16-15.
Cazenovia recorded runs in every inning except the first, overcoming an early 6-2 deficit to eventually take a 15-11 lead before Hannibal netted four runs in the bottom of the sixth to forge a 16-15 tie.
Unfazed, the Lakers added another run in the top of the seventh, and then kept the Warriors off the board in the bottom of the seventh to pull it out.
Josie Chiarello, with four hits and three RBIs, led Cazenovia’s effort at the plate. Maggie Johnson hit a solo home run and scored three times, with Rachel McLaughlin adding a double and two RBIs.
Danielle Tedesco, who shared pitching duties with Jamie Kempf, scored three runs as she, along with Kimber Nourse, Morgan Mapstone and Leah Gamlen, drove in one run apiece. Hannibal lost despite Hailey Dunsmoor’s three hits and six RBIs.
It got tougher from there, Cazenovia facing Vernon-Verona-Sherrill on Tuesday and watching the Red Devils win its eighth straight game and halting the Lakers’ own win streak in an 18-2 decision.
A 10-run third inning broke it open for VVS, who saw Jordan Penoyer, Ashley Findlay and Kirsten Oliver each produce three RBIs as Penoyer also struck out 13 Cazenovia batters, holding them to just three hits for the day.
Tough road trips followed late in the week. On Thursday, the Lakers lost, 12-4, to Westhill, and then had to meet unbeaten, state no. 4-ranked defending Section III Class B champion Solvay on Friday night at Onondaga Community College and got just two hits against pitcher Lauren Nichols in a 21-0 defeat.
Chittenango started its play last week with a 14-6 defeat to Homer, where the Bears didn’t get on the board until the fourth inning, by which point the Trojans held an 8-0 advantage, its eventual winning margin.
Morgan Shoemaker did all she could in the late going, turning her pair of hits into four RBIs, while Alexa Rossi and Ana Narolis also drove in runs. But Homer kept adding to its total, seeing Emily McNeil and Molly Ulrich each earn three RBIs.
Still winless, the Bears visited Mexico on Thursday afternoon and struggled again in a 13-1 loss. Five-run outbursts in the first and fourth innings put the Tigers in control, with Chittenango’s lone tally coming in the top of the fourth, driven in by Trisha Whaley’s double. Kennedy Lamb and Kendra Harter each hit home runs for the victorious Tigers.
But the long-awaited breakthrough for Chittenango came in a Saturday rematch against Mexico, where the Bears pulled out a 6-4 victory by scoring three runs in the fifth inning and two more runs in the sixth to erase the Tigers’ early 2-1 lead.
Shoemaker and Nicole Myers, who finished with two hits, each had a pair of RBIs. Whaley and Alexa Rossi also had two-hit outings as Rossi, who limited Mexico to six hits in her complete-game pitching effort, and Narolis scored runs.
