At least for one afternoon, the Cazenovia softball team got the special experience of sending a parade of players across the plate.
The Lakers did so in last Tuesday afternoon’s 12-5 victory over the Jordan-Elbridge Eagles, a game where it fell behind, 5-0, in the third inning, the key blows a two-run double by Libby Baker and a run-scoring double by her J-E teammate, Mia Arms.
Samantha Morgan, pitching for Cazenovia, settled down from there, and in the bottom of the fourth the Lakers got back in it with a pair of runs, just the appetizer for what was to follow.
During the bottom of the fifth, Cazenovia nearly batted around twice and didn’t let up until it had scored 10 big runs. Hannah Matteson and Janie Kempf led the way, Matteson netting a double, triple and three RBIs as Kempf drove in two runs. Delaney Yorks scored two runs as she, along with Jenay Griffin, Autumn Paddock, Carli Cunningham and McKenzie Giordano, notched one RBI apiece.
A rematch with J-E came two days later, but it turned out differently for the Lakers, who lost to the Eagles 6-4. Even after it erased an early 3-0 deficit with three runs in the top of the second and took a 4-3 lead two innings later, Cazenovia could not hold on, J-E answering with two runs in the fourth and another run in the fifth.
Cunningham, Yorks and Autumn Paddock each got two hits for the Lakers, with Cunningham driving in two runs as Giordano added an RBI. Emily Bard led the Eagles, earning three hits, two of them doubles, and scoring twice as Libby Baker got two RBIs.
The week was supposed to start with Cazenovia hosting Syracuse, but it got rained out last Monday and will get made up on May 17.
Meanwhile, the Chittenango softball team, on the brink of a convincing victory at Phoenix last Tuesday afternoon, saw the whole enterprise come apart in the seventh inning of a 7-6 defeat to the Phoenix Firebirds.
The Bears, who had lost to Phoenix 13-10 on April 18, gradually built a 6-1 lead through six innings. Shayla Muncy doubled twice and scored two runs, with Alexa Rossi getting a double and three RBIs as Lauren Hardy also drove in a run. Nicole Myers, Sydney Bennett, Morgan Shoemaker and Trisha Whaley had two hits apiece.
All of that looked to be enough with Rossi pitching well – but in the bottom of the seventh, Phoenix stunned Chittenango, batting around and netting six runs to go from lopsided defeat to stunning victory. Jada Jackowski, with two RBIs, led the comeback.
Perhaps that defeat lingered because, on Thursday, Chittenango fell to Homer 10-3, the Bears getting all of its runs in the fifth inning, though by that point the Trojans already led 9-0.
Hardy had a two-run triple that scored Bennett and Anna Geiler, and then scored on Myers’ single. Homer’s Mackenzie Conklin went deep and earned three RBIs, with Ashley Aloi and Rachael Osterhoudt each driving in two runs.
