Like many of the OHSL Liberty division opponents it will face once school resumes, the Cazenovia baseball team spent the break week sizing itself up against unfamiliar opponents in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
Against Hampshire (West Virgnia) last Tuesday afternoon, the Lakers took a 4-2, nine-inning defeat. The two teams exchanged second-inning runs before Cazenovia seized a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the fifth, Ben Nichols and Judson Spaulding having scored the runs as Matt Regan got credit for an RBI.
Regan pitched, and could not hold that slim lead as Hampshire tied it in the top of the seventh. Then Evan Begley took over and, in two innings, struck out the side twice, but gave up Hampshire’s pair of go-ahead runs in the ninth.
Those struggles continued on Wednesday with a 9-3 defeat to Dixie (South Carolina). Trailing 2-0 early in the game, the Lakers scored twice in the fourth and again in the fifth to go up, 3-2, as Regan, Josh Bauder and Dan Hammond each got an RBI.
However, Dixie regained the lead for good in the sixth, batting around and pouring in six runs as four relievers – Begley, Spaulding, Ben Nichols and Dylan Roy – took turns following Regan’s five-inning starting stint that included seven strikeouts.
The skid in Myrtle Beach ended on Friday with a 6-3 victory over Watertown, another Section III side who made the trip down south. Cazenovia scored twice in the third, fourth and fifth innings to build a 6-0 lead before the Cyclones cut the margin in half with three runs in the fifth off Tanner Marino’s double, but got no closer.
Matt Regan pitched a complete game for the Lakers, striking out 10 and holding Watertown to three hits. Begley doubled and drove in two runs, with Nichols, Bauder and Anthony Vecchiarelli earning one RBI apiece.
That lingered into Thursday’s game against Audubon (New Jersey), a 21-5 loss that took place as Chittenango, who didn’t travel during the week of the break, met undefeated, reigning Section III Class B champion Solvay and took an 8-2 loss to the Bearcats.
Wasting little time, Solvay tagged the Bears for four runs in the first inning and two more in the second, all it needed. Chittenango managed just three hits, but did net single runs in the fifth and sixth innings as Tom Rooney doubled and scored, with Tom Valentine and Justin Makowski getting credit for the RBIs.
Chittenango had played on April 15, falling 16-2 to Central Square. who scored at least twice in each of the first five innings, including a six-run rally in the bottom of the fourth after Noah Schnauffer and Joe Mosack drove in runs for the Bears earlier that inning to break up the shutout.
