Having reclaimed the Section III Class A championship from Oneida in an extra-inning thriller May 31, the Jamesville-DeWitt softball team needed two more wins to reach the state final four – but only gone one of them.
The Red Rams returned to the Gillette Road complex in Cicero Thursday to face Massena (Section X) in the opening round of regional play – and it quickly turned into a rout, the Red Rams piling up runs on the Red Raiders until it ended in a 34-4 decision.
Between a 10-run first inning, a nine-run third inning and 11-run fourth inning, J-D accumulated 37 hits, seeing all 14 players on the roster earn at least one hit by game’s end.
Amanda Sumida, Shayna Myshrall and Makenzie Keeler each hit home runs, combining for 13 RBIs as Paige Sherling and Carly O’Hern both drove in three runs. Sara Gow, Katie Tzivanis and Alexis LeClair had two RBIs apiece.
It promised to get tougher for the Red Rams in Saturday’s regional final at Luther Forest Fields in Malta, near Saratoga Springs, against Section II champion Troy, who was no. 9 in the latest state rankings, four spots ahead of J-D at no. 13.
In the end, it proved too tough for the Rams, who fell to the Flying Horses 10-1. Already trailing 1-0, J-D saw everything come apart in a second inning where Troy batted around and finished with six runs.
Eventually, the margin got to 9-0 through three innings, and though Sumida and Myshrall didn’t allow much more, J-D’s bats never got on track, only managing a single seventh-inning run to prevent getting shut out.
This marked the culmination of a rough weekend for Section III’s softball team. All five champions – J-D, Liverpool (Class AA), Altmar-Parish-Williamstown (Class B), Cooperstown (Class C) and LaFargeville (Class D) – lost in the regional round.
