So close to a landmark victory, the Baldwinsville softball team pushed three-time defending champion Liverpool well beyond the wire in Saturday’s Section III Class AA semifinal at Onondaga Community College.
Yet it was the Warriors emerging with a 2-1 victory over the Bees when Giana LaValle raced home with the winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning on Olivia Hayden’s grounder.
B’ville, the no. 5 seed, had lost two regular-season games to Liverpool, by 6-0 and 12-8 margins. But the third encounter would prove the most important – and most exciting, too.
Kayla Young, the Bees’ pitcher, kept up with Liverpool counterpart Jenna Wike through three innings, though the Warriors put runners on base in each of those frames, the biggest threat coming in the second, when Gina Meyers tripled with two out, but Young coaxed Sophia Harris to ground out.
Meanwhile, B’ville had its own chance in the top of the third, putting two on with two out, only to see Kaycee Hawk pop out. An inning later, the Warriors took a 1-0 lead when Meyers singled home Wike, only to have the Bees throw out Ashley Teixeira trying to add a second run.
Still down by a run in the sixth, the Bees pulled even when Allie Hotchkiss tripled, Hawk walked and Young pulled off a terrific squeeze bunt that brought Hotchkiss home. Eventually, B’ville loaded the bases with one out, but Wike, with a strikeout and force play, limited the damage to a single run.
Defense again saved the Bees in the bottom of the seventh when Meyers hit a triple down the right-field line, but in an attempt to go home, realized she wouldn’t make it, turned around – and got picked off.
So it went to extra innings, and in the top of the eighth Young doubled with two out and Dunn singled, moving pinch-runner Jenna Kocik to third. Jillian Dunn then hit a hard liner – right at Wike, ending the rally.
With the game still 1-1 in the 10th, the international rule of putting a runner on second base was applied. Kocik was stranded, though, when Hotchkiss lined out and Hawk grounded out.
When Liverpool got its turn in the bottom of the 10th, LaValle moved to third on Alicia Nash’s sacrifice bunt. Hayden then hit a hard bunt toward third baseman Chloe Branshaw, who threw home, but LaValle slid in under the tag for the decisive run.
