In order to climb back to the top of the Section III Class B softball ranks, all the Solvay softball team had to do was give the ball to Lauren Nichols and watch her mow down every hitter that dared challenge her.
Capping a 28-inning shutout run through the sectional tournament, Nichols threw a one-hit, 17-strikeout gem in Tuesday night’s Class B title game at Onondaga Community College, helping the top-seeded Bearcats turn back no. 2 seed Oneida 2-0.
“Lauren just dominated them,” said Solvay head coach Phil Merrill. “She really was on a mission.”
A single moment symbolized the way Nichols baffled and frustrated Oneida throughout the evening, and it wasn’t one of those 17 strikeouts.
Leading off the top of the sixth inning, Oneida’s Lauren Skibitski managed to get the ball in play – and broke her aluminum bat while popping out. Merrill said he had never seen it in his long coaching tenure, and Nichols said she hadn’t seen it happen before, either.
It provided a capstone to a week-long tear through the sectional bracket. Nichols threw a perfect game against Vernon-Verona-Sherrill, gave up just one hit to CBA in the quarterfinals and then limited Lowville to two hits in the semifinals.
Here, the only Oneida hit came in the top of the first, and even that didn’t leave the infield. Hannah Begay hit a slow grounder and made it to first base for a two-out single, but Nichols promptly struck out Kyrie Sholtzhauer to end the inning.
Sholtzhauer got the start for the Indians and, in her five innings of work, was nearly as good, retiring 10 in a row at one point. But she dearly paid for the four-pitch walk she issued to Nichols in the bottom of the first.
A passed ball got Nichols to second base. Then, on Caitlin McCann’s grounder, a throwing error allowed Nichols to scramble home with the only run Solvay needed.
“To get a run early was enormous,” said Merrill.
Due to a dropped third strike in the third inning, Nichols managed the rare feat of 10 strikeouts in the first three innings. Though that pace couldn’t be maintained, the only Indians batter to reach base the rest of the way did so when pinch-hitter Kaylin Curro walked in the fifth.
Solvay doubled its lead in the bottom of the fifth when catcher Hope Rivera singled and, after a force play at second on Jordan Bamba’s grounder, Bamba scored when Aleah Yaizzo’s drive to right field was dropped and the ball rolled to the wall.
Two more perfect frames by Nichols followed, and the Bearcats, after ceding the crown to Altmar-Parish-Williamstown in 2016, had reclaimed the sectional title.
On Friday, Solvay faces Section IV champion Susquehanna Valley in the Class B regional final at Carrier Park with a berth in the June 10 state final four in Glens Falls on the line.
