Having raced to the top of the OHSL Liberty division standings, the Christian Brothers Academy softball team had no intention of leaving that perch.
Two big road games would give the Brothers an ideal sense of where it stood, and in the first of them it used a big sixth inning to blast past reigning state Class B champion Solvay 12-4.
Entering the top of the sixth, CBA trailed 3-2 after the Bearcats had scored twice in the fifth, but it got to Solvay pitcher Izzy Lambert and her relief replacement, Delana Thomas, nearly batting around twice on the way to a 10-run rally.
Maddy Tallman, who pitched a complete game, had a team-best four RBIs, with Bridget O’Hern going four-for-five, including a double, scoring three times and getting two RBIs. Julia Boule tripled and drove in three runs as Julia Griffith got two RBIs and Abby Benware scored twice.
Now, a day later, CBA (9-1) traveled to Marcellus (8-2), but could not carry over the magic from the Solvay game as Evelyn Webster was largely responsible for the Mustangs’ 7-3 win over the Brothers.
In the bottom of the first, Webster, with two on, drove them home with a long double to the wall. Then Marcellus added a run in the second before CBA got to Mustangs starter Isabella Rodolico for three runs in the fourth, two driven home on Benware’s double and another on Griffith’s single.
It was still 3-3 when, in the bottom of the fifth, Marcellus loaded the bases against Tallman, and Webster cleared them with a double that scored three runs. Webster returned to drive home another run on a sixth-inning sacrifice fly off Boule, who had relieved Tallman.
But CBA made a quick recovery on Thursday, ripping past Chittenango 11-0 on Thursday as it scored all of its runs in the second through fifth innings, led by Catherine Burns, who had three RBIs as Boule and Emily Hall drove in two runs apiece.
Up against “Holy War” Rival Bishop Ludden last Monday afternoon, the Brothers unloaded in a 22-3 victory over the Gaelic Knights, leading 8-0 through two innings and adding to its total before a 10-run rally in the sixth evoked the mercy rule.
Boule led CBA with four hits, two of them doubles. Emily Hall’s pair of doubles led to three RBIs as Tallman and Victoria Hall also drove in three runs. Burns and Kenzie Witz each had two RBIs as O’Hern doubled twice and scored a team-high four runs.
As the Brothers blanked Skaneateles 16-0 on Saturday, Boule scored four runs and produced three RBIs. O’Hern and Benware each drove in two runs as Tallman and Julia Sulivan got two hits apiece.
Fayetteville-Manlius started its week by going up against Liverpool last Monday, and were overwhelmed by the Warriors in an 18-2 defeat, but rebounded a day later with an impressive 7-3 win over Baldwinsville.
Trying for back-to-back wins on Thursday, F-M could not pull it off, falling 7-1 to West Genesee as the Wildcats scored all of its runs in the fourth inning. Back-to-back defeats to Cicero-North Syracuse by margins of 15-5 and 10-1 followed,
Bishop Grimes returned to action last Tuesday and won a 5-4, nine-inning battle with Onondaga. Trailing 3-0, the Cobras used two runs in the fourth and two runs in the sixth to take a 4-3 lead.
Even when the Tigers tied it in the top of the seventh, the Cobras stayed patient and pushed across the winning run two innings later, having seen Brianna Squier pitch strong, scoreless relief after Sarah Falgiatano’s start.
Kendall Mancuso led Grimes at the plate with three hits, scoring twice. McKenna Squier’s pair of hits led to two RBIs as Brianna Squier also drove in two runs and Briana Bowles added an RBI.
Then Grimes and ripped past Cato-Meridian 16-1 in five innings. Four runs in each of the first two innings, plus six runs in the fourth, did most of the damage for the Cobras.
Brianna Squier’s pair of hits led to four RBIs as she also pitched and allowed just two hits, striking out 11. McKenna Squier and Becca Vinciquerra each scored three times as Mancuso scored four runs. Falgiatano, Bowles, Alyssa Cavallo and Emma Purce had two RBIs apiece.
Grimes played Saturday and defeated Pulaski 4-1, with a four-run first inning the difference as Vinciquerra doubled and drove in a run, with Purce also getting an RBI. Falgiatano pitched five innings and allowed five hits before Brianna Squier closed it out.
