Day after day in practice, and prior to each game, softball teams work on stopping grounders, line drives and fly balls, for they know that any mistake, at any time, could cost them a run or a game.
If Jamesville-DeWitt didn’t appreciate the value of all these drills, it sure did in the aftermath of Saturday’s 3-1 victory over Whitesboro in the Section III Class A semifinal at the Gillette Road complex in Cicero.
Without some superb work with the gloves from several players, it’s doubtful that J-D makes it to Tuesday night’s sectional final at Gillette, a rematch of the 2015 title game against top seed Oneida, who needed eight innings to fight past Cortland 1-0 in the other semifinal.
It was in the top of the fourth inning, with the score still 0-0, that the magic started. A double and wild pitch had Whitesboro with a runner on third base and two out.
Then, with opposing pitcher Caitlyn Reilly at the plate, J-D left-hander Amanda Sumida threw one to the backstop. Catcher Sara Gow sprang up, grabbed the ball and threw home, where Sumida tagged the runner trying to score.
That kept it 0-0, and though Whitesboro did get on the board an inning later when Stephanie Smith smacked an RBI single, third baseman Julia Fairbanks thwarted a larger rally by executing a 5-3 double play on a hard-hit grounder.
With two out in the bottom of the fifth, the value of those plays increased even more. Sarina Alexander and Paige Sherling beat out an infield hit before Makenzie Keeler hit a fly ball that Whitesboro couldn’t grab in deep right field, allowing two runs to score.
Another error following a Shayna Myshrall double in the bottom of the sixth gave J-D an insurance run. Before that, Keeler had executed a second 5-3 double play in the top of the sixth, snuffing out another Warriors rally, and Carly O’Hern capped it off with a diving catch in center field for the final out in the seventh.
Now J-D could focus on Oneida, whose run through the sectional tournament has proven just as tough.
Ironically, Oneida would, in its sectional quarterfinal, face no. 8 seed East Syracuse Minoa, who had introduced itself to the sectional tournament with an all-out assault at the plate against no. 9 seed Fulton that resulted in a 21-4 victory over the Red Raiders.
True, the Spartans were helped by six Fulton errors, but it still notched 17 hits and scored in every inning, starting to get away with five-run outbursts in the second and third innings before peaking with eight runs in the bottom of the fourth.
Aubrey and Aricia Wiliams each picked up three hits, Aubrey scoring four runs as Aricia earned three RBIs while also crossing the plate three times. Taylor Cassella’s three walks and two triples led to two RBIs as Julia Jackson, Franchescha Polcaro, Sam Short and Sami Wysocki also had two-RBI outings. Alissa Daly and Courtney Burgun drove in one run apiece.
Some of those runs may have proved helpful against Oneida, though the Spartans did come up with a tremendous effort, nearly dethroning the Indians before its bid fell just short in a 4-3 defeat.
Early on, it was apparent that ESM wasn’t intimidated. It trailed, 1-0, thanks to Lexi Skibitski’s first-inning double that scored Elizabeth LaSalle, but an inning later Polcaro, in left field, threw out a runner trying to score.
Energized by that play, the Spartans tied it, 1-1, in the top of the third with Daly getting an RBI single, but Oneida countered in the bottom of the third by scoring twice. Then Polcaro got going again in the top of the fourth, reaching when Kylie Chesebro hit her and eventually coming around to score.
A pair of doubles – one by Lauren Skibitski, the other by Briana Laureti – got Oneida a 4-2 edge in the bottom of the fourth, but from there Short did a superb job keeping the Indians off the board, allowing for multiple chances for ESM to catch up.
An Oneida error in the top of the fifth inning allowed Aubrey Williams to score and trim the Spartans’ deficit to one. Then, in the sixth, ESM put the tying and go-ahead runs on base, but Chesebro stranded them, and in the seventh a base-running mistake cut short another chance to tie, allowing Oneida to survive.
While all that was going on, J-D was getting past no. 10 seed New Hartford 8-6 in its sectional quarterfinal.
Sumida, who had pitched so well in recent weeks, got the start, but New Hartford tagged her for three runs in the second inning to erase the Rams’ early 2-0 lead. By the time they reached the bottom of the fourth, the visitors had a 6-4 advantage.
Staying poised and patient, J-D put across a run in the fourth to make it 6-5, and then scored three times in the fifth inning to take the lead. What’s more, Myshrall made that lead stick with two scoreless frames of relief after Sumida had given up 10 hits and six walks.
O’Hern went three-for-four at the plate, while Sherling delivered a home run and single, scored three times and got three RBIs. Alexander drove in two runs as Keeler doubled, joining O’Hern and Hannah Gunther with one RBI apiece.
