Even as it got prepared for its challenge to Liverpool in the Section III Class AA playoffs, the Baldwinsville softball team still challenged itself outside of the CNY Counties League, and it didn’t always turn out well.
The Bees hosted 15-2, state Class B no. 17-ranked Solvay last Monday afternoon, and its hitters struggled in a 4-0 defeat.
Though Solvay lost all but four of its players from back-to-back state Class B finals appearances in 2014 and ’15, it still had pitcher Lauren Nichols on hand, and the Bearcats ace silenced the B’ville bats from start to finish.
Nichols threw a one-hitter, only surrendering a single to Haley Parker while recording 12 strikeouts as she outdueled Bees ace Keeanna Wolcik, who managed 12 strikeouts of her own, but only lasted until the fifth inning, when Emma Bernet took over.
Solvay struck for two runs off Wolcik in the top of the first inning to go in front for good. It later added a pair of insurance runs in the seventh as Delana Thomas doubled, singled and earned two RBIs. Sam Farruggio and Ashley Bosco drove in the other runs.
From there, the Bees rested and practiced until finding out on Sunday when it would start the sectional tournament. It would do as the no. 4 seed, hosting no. 5 seed Utica Proctor Thursday in the quarterfinals.
Liverpool, the defending champions, only got the no. 2 seed, meaning that B’ville would n’t have to face the Warriors until a possible final June 1 at the Gillette Road complex.
