Hundreds of miles from home, the Cazenovia baseball team matched itself against three fellow travelers during a week of games at Myrtle Beach, South Carolina during the April school break.
Right from the outset, it proved exciting for the Lakers, who took on Bishop Grimes last Monday and nearly made a big comeback before taking a 6-5 defeat to the Cobras.
Cazenovia stared at a 5-1 deficit when it got to Grimes pitcher Trevor Pokines for three runs in the top of the fifth. Then the Cobras got a run in the sixth that ultimately made the difference because the Lakers again pulled within one in the top of the seventh before Chris Mancuso, in relief of Trevor Pokines, got the final out.
Graham Demo had two of the Lakers’ five hits, earning an RBI. Noah Race scored three times, joining Demo and Anders Hansen in the RBI column as Matt Regan and Judson Spaulding each got hits and scored single runs. Alex Marshall pitched four innings of relief after an early exit from starter Matt Regan.
What followed, on Tuesday, was a Laker duel between Cazenovia and Skaneateles, who had started 6-0 before a defeat to Westhill the day before. Unfazed by that, Skaneateles prevailed in this game, handing Cazenovia a 5-3 defeat.
The teams traded runs in the second inning before Cazenovia scored twice off Skaneateles starter Cregg Scherrer in the bottom of the fourth. Evan Begley had a pair of RBIs, with Spaulding also driving in a run as the only payer in the lineup to earn two hits.
Still, the lead didn’t hold. Skaneateles tied it, 3-3, in the fifth, and pulled in front with two more runs an inning later. Regan took the loss after Begley started and went 4 2/3 innings, with Spaulding and Marshall also seeing relief stints.
Things proved more lopsided in Wednesday’s 12-1 loss to Westhill, where the Lakers surrendered runs in each of the first five innings before finally getting on the board in the sixth thanks to Dom King’s double that scored Regan.
Remarkably, Cazenovia had nine hits to Westhill’s seven, but was done in by nine errors in the field. Begley and Noah Race both got two hits as, for Westhill, Jacob Puglisi and Chris Coates each drove in two runs,. Five different Laker pitchers – Marshall, Spaulding, Dustin Hammond, John Henry Light-Olson and Josh Bauder – saw action.
The trip ended with a 9-4 defeat to Plattsburgh on Thursday where Cazenovia was briefly tied, 2-2, but then saw Plattsburgh match Westhill by scoring in five straight innings, starting in the top of the third. In defeat, Eric Ketcham had two doubles and two RBIs, with Demo and Paul McLaughlin also driving in runs.
Back home, a far different sort of circumstances surrounded the Chittenango baseball team, who wanted to make headway in the OHSL Freedon division, but continued to find it difficult.
In last Monday’s rain-shortened game at Central Square, the Bears lost, 11-3, to the Redhawks, who put up five runs in the first inning and did so again in the bottom of the fourth as three pitchers – Wyatt Myers, Tom Rooney and Seamus St. Leger –tried to stop the damage.
For its part, Chittenango got just four hits off Central Square Elijah Elmer, two of them by Myers, who also earned two RBIs as Matt Milliman added a single and RBI. Mike Culkin doubled and scored a run as Tom Valentine also scored.
In Wednesday’s 7-5 defeat to Cortland, the Bears fell behind, 7-0, with the Purple Tigers scoring six of those runs in the third and fourth innings as James Lane, with two RBIs, led the visitors.
Still, Chittenango almost caught up, thanks to a five-run outburst in the bottom of the sixth where Justin Gondeck had a two-run double, adding to his earlier double. Valentine and Culkin also drove in runs in that inning, but Cortland halted the rally and then blanked the Bears in the seventh to end it.
What followed, on Friday, was a 12-4 loss to Jamesville-DeWitt where the Red Rams picked up runs in every inning except the second, led by Pat Cramer, who had four hits, and Gavin French, who earned three RBIs.
The Bears could not take full advantage of its 11 hits, shut out until the bottom of the fifth. Myers still drove in two runs, with Zane Garvey and Zane Cowburn each getting three hits and scoring twice. Culkin contributed an RBI.
