When the Skaneateles baseball team made the long trip to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, to see a full week of game action during the April school break, it did so having sprinted to a 6-0 start and the top of the OHSL Liberty National division.
But that win streak came to a halt last Monday, courtesy of Westhill, who relied on the strong pitching of John Geer to earn a 6-1 victory over the Lakers. But it didn’t take long for Skaneateles to start winning again.
In fact, just 24 hours later, Sknaeateles claimed its first Laker duel of the spring, rallying to beat Cazenovia 5-3. The two sides traded second-inning runs before Cazenovia scored twice off starting pitcher Cregg Scherrer in the bottom of the fourth.
Quickly, Skaneateles erased that 3-1 deficit, tying it in the top of the fifth and then, an inning later, adding two more runs to go in front as it got to reliever Matt Regan, who had taken over after starter Evan Begley went 4 1/3 innings.
Adam Lupo notched a solo home run, with Jake Reed earning a pair of RBIs as Josh McCabe was the lone hitter on his side to notch two hits.
Scherrer weathered his mid-game struggles and managed to hold Cazenovia to five hits, overcoming five walks and three errors from his teammates to notch nine strikeouts, an average of better than one strikeout per inning.
From there, Skaneateles stepped out of league play on Wednesday to face Watertown and recorded a 4-1 victory. Pete Knupp starred on the mound, throwing a complete game where he shut out the Cyclones until the sixth inning and gave up just five hits while earning eight strikeouts.
Single runs in the second, third, fourth and sixth innings proved enough for the Lakers as it managed just four hits, but took advantage of six Watertown errors. Knupp got credit for an RBI and scored a run Tommy Scherrer scored twice and Kyler Viggiano also crossed the plate.
In Thursday’s action, Skaneateles defeated Elmira 5-1, scoring runs in the first, fourth and fifth innings before it scored twice in the top of the seventh to double its margin for Jim Drancsak, who limited the Express to five hits in his complete-game pitching effort.
Cregg Scherrer notched three of the Lakers’ nine hits and scored three runs. Joe Pitman and Nate Main each had two hits, with Pitman getting a double and two RBIs as Drancsak doubled and drove in a run to help his own cause.
One more league game remained, against Bishop Grimes on Friday, and the Lakers’ bats went quiet in a 7-1 defeat to the Cobras, who saw pitcher Trevor Pokines throw a complete game and get help when Grimes scored a run in the fourth inning and two in the fifth before Chris Mancuso’s bases-loaded single in the sixth keyed a three-run rally that broke it open.
Back home, the Skaneateles softball team resumed action last Wednesday, taking a 4-0 defeat to Marcellus, even though Lakers pitcher Sarah Blowers only allowed a single run after the Mustangs scored three times in the bottom of the first and four hits overall,
At the same time, the Skaneateles lineup managed little against pitcher Laura Finn, who gave up just one hit, to Maeve Canty, and amassed 13 strikeouts. Alyssa Cook scored two runs and Emily Welch added an RBI.
