Having survived plenty of ups and downs against Salt City Athletic Conference Metro division opponents, the Baldwinsville softball team looked for a string of good performances before the post-season loomed.
And the Bees got one in last Monday’s trip to Auburn, pushed to eight innings but able to defeat to the Maroons 3-1.
Kayla Young’s solo home run in the fourth inning broke a 0-0 deadlock. Auburn tied it in the bottom of the fifth when Grace Baranick doubled home Olivia Maassen.
It stayed 1-1 through the end of regulation. Then, in the top of the eighth, Claire McAllister hit a clutch two-run double, and the Bees lead for good as Young, who pitched all eight innings, held the Maroons to three hits and had a season-best 15 strikeouts.
Back at the .500 mark (7-7), B’ville looked to elevate itself further in last Tuesday’s game at Fayetteville-Manlius, but could not do so, taking a 7-3 defeat to the Hornets.
Then the Bees would visit the Gillette Road complex to face Cicero-North Syracuse on Wednesday afternoon, and get overwhelmed by the Northstars in a 17-2 defeat.
Angry that it had lost an eight-inning decision to West Genesee two days earlier, C-NS took it out on B’ville after Madelyn Shuler’s two-run home run in the top of the first.
The Northstars got five runs in the bottom of the first, adding three runs in the third and nine total runs in the fourth and fifth innings. Julianna Vassallo hit a home run, doubled and got five RBIs, with Ally Ciafratta driving in four runs.
Then B’ville would have to face Liverpool again on Friday afternoon, and for the second time this spring lost a decision by a single run, falling to the Warriors 1-0 on a run in the bottom of the seventh inning.
Twice, McAllister earned hits, with Martin getting the other hit, a double. Yet Warriors pitcher Jenna Wike kept the Bees off the board.
Meanwhile, Liverpool had nine hits, Wike going four-for-four and Ashley Teixeira adding three hits, but B’ville constantly stranded them until the seventh when Wike’s fourth hit led to Alicia Nash’s single that scored Wike.
Even with a 3-8 league record (7-10), the fact that Section III will hold an open tournament that lets in all teams, regardless of their records, gives B’ville a chance to relax the last week of the regular season, regardless of what happens in games against C-NS, Fayetteville-Manilus and Jamesville-DeWitt.
