Any time a defending league and sectional champion is knocked off, it’s fairly special, regardless of the circumstances.
That was certainly how the Skaneateles baseball team felt in the wake of last Wednesday’s 8-2 victory over Solvay, a game where brothers Cregg and Tommy Scherrer took turns hurting the Bearcats in multiple ways.
Skaneateles caught Solvay at a crucial moment in the Bearcats’ season. After starting 9-0, Solvay had dropped back-to-back games to Vernon-Verona-Sherrill and Westhill, the latter of them a bit of payback for the three times the Bearcats beat the Warriors a year ago, including the sectional Class B final.
Now it was the Lakers’ turn to avenge what Solvay did to them in 2016, and it took the lead with a first-inning run, proceeding to rough up Bearcats pitcher Josh Posnick with two runs in the third and three more runs in the bottom of the fifth.
Tommy Scherrer went three-for-four, driving in three runs. Josh McCabe scored three times as Adam Lupo had two hits and two runs scored. However, Cregg Scherrer did the most damage, matching his brother’s three-RBI total while also pitching 5 2/3 innings, holding Solvay to two hits while striking out nine to overcome five walks.
All of this followed the Lakers’ own 3-2 defeat at Bishop Grimes the day before. Tommy Scherrer was staked to a 2-0 first-inning lead when Lupo singled home McCabe, and then scored himself.
However, it was tied, 2-2, by the end of the second inning, and from there Scherrer and Cobras pitcher Jordan Newman kept it that way until Grimes put across a run in the bottom of the sixth. All told, Skaneateles managed just three hits off Newman, one each by Lupo, Scherrer and Michael Murphy.
While all this was going on, the Skaneateles softball team began its post-spring break action last Monday against the combined Syracuse city team and was unable to get on the board in an 11-0 defeat.
All that the Lakers could manage was two hits, one each by Maeve Canty and Kathryn Lindgren, off Syracuse pitcher Adonia Wade, who amassed 13 strikeouts.
Syracuse jumped on Skaneateles pitcher Sarah Blowers for five-run outbursts in the second and fifth innings to break things open as Haleigh Machaud got three RBIs, with Wade, Helena Cory and Donyeasha Bacon driving in two runs apiece.
In a much closer game on Thursday, the Lakers fell to Tully 4-3, its fourth defeat against two wins. Trailing 2-0, Skaneateles tied it in the bottom of the fourth and grabbed a 3-2 lead an inning later, only to have the Black Knights counter with two runs in the top of the sixth to go back in front for good.
Elizabeth Williams drove in two of the Skaneateles runs, with Canty, Lindgren and Ryley Pascal earning two hits apiece and each scoring once. Kyra Cottrill pitched and earned 11 strikeouts, but still took the loss.
Weather permitting, it will be a busy first week of May for the Lakers, with back-to-back games against Phoenix and Cazenovia, with a trip to Westhill in between.
