Things ended for the Bishop Grimes and Christian Brothers Academy softball teams in equally agonizing manners during Tuesday’s opening round of the Section III playoffs, each of them defeated by a single run in games decided late in regulation – or beyond.
In Class C, Grimes, the no. 6 seed, who made it all the way to the finals a season ago before a tough defeat to Bishop Grimes, was victimized by its own comeback formula in an 11-10 defeat to no. 11 seed Tully.
And this happened despite a mid-game Cobras resurrection. Tully, who split two regular-season meetings with Grimes but had won a 10-7 decision just five days earlier on May 19, seized a 5-0 lead going into the bottom of the fourth inning.
Here, though, the Cobras lit up Black Knights pitchers Lexi Hotchkiss and Amanda Bielecki for nine runs. Here was where KayLee Steiner, who finished with two triples and three RBIs, did most of her damage as Marissa Curtis drove in a pair of runs. Brianna Squier, who had four hits, joined Meghan Vonden Steinen and Emma Purce as they got one RBI apiece.
Squier nursed that 9-5 lead until the top of the seventh, when it all fell apart. Tully went around its order and erupted for six runs to go in front, 11-9, and that was enough as Grimes moved back within one in the bottom of the seventh before Bielecki was able to get the final out.
Tully moved on to face Fabius-Pompey in the quarterfinals after seeing Lexi Hotchkiss drive in three runs, with Morgan Hiltbrand, Emily Lantiegne and Zoe Fritz getting two RBIs apiece. Grimes would end up with a mark of 12-8.
Meanwhile, in the Class B bracket, CBA, the no. 11 seed, who had faced Class A foes all season in the OHSL Freedom division, nearly won at no. 6 seed Lowville, but was denied in a tight 3-2, eight-inning defeat to the Red Raiders.
Through seven innings, the Brothers played Lowville to a 2-2 draw. They were still that way in the bottom of the eighth when, with McKailey Lyndaker on third base, Natalie Sweeney pulled off a suicide squeeze bunt that allowed Lyndaker to make it home with the decisive run.
Lowville advanced to face no. 3 seed Altmar-Parish-Williamstown in the quarterfinals, while CBA finished its season with a 7-13 record.
