Having taken plenty of close, frustrating defeats this spring, the Baldwinsville softball team nearly had another early last week when it hosted Fayetteville-Manlius.
But just in time, the Bees pulled out of its skid and prevailed 7-6 in eight innings, a game where it once led, 5-0, only to see the Hornets score twice in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings to go in front.
Yet that 6-5 deficit didn’t last as B’ville tied it in the seventh and won it an inning later, capping a 14-hit effort where Chloe Branshaw, Jordan Martin, Kaycee Hawk and Claire McAllister led with two hits apiece. McAllister also had two RBIs as Branshaw and Hawk each drove in one run.
Two days later, at defending Section III Class A champion Jamesville-DeWitt, the Bees put up quite a battle, yet still took a 6-4 defeat to the Red Rams.
All through the early innings, J-D tried to get away, erasing an early 1-0 B’ville advantage with three runs in the bottom of the second caused by two walks and three wild pitches from Young.
Another run in the fourth and two runs in the fifth followed, yet Young didn’t let it get out of hand, recording 13 strikeouts and then sparking a comeback attempt with a late solo home run as Shelby Stisser also had an RBI.
J-D held on, though, as pitcher Amanda Sumida went all seven innings, overcoming seven walks and six hits as Katie White led the Red Rams at the plate, going three-for-three with three runs scored.
B’ville had another encounter with defending sectional Class AA champion Cicero-North Syracuse on Thursday, but it ended just like the first two as the Bees fell 8-2 to the Northstars.
It was 0-0 until C-NS struck for two runs in the fourth and fifth innings. The Bees cut the deficit in half as Stisser and Mattison Phinney scored in the fifth and sixth innings, but the Northstars used four runs in the top of the seventh to clinch it, Ally Thompson and Giana Wameling each getting a pair of hits.
Ten teams were in the Section III Class AA playoff bracket, with B’ville as the. 8 seed, meeting no. 9 seed Central Square with the winner to take aim at top seed Liverpool in the quarterfinals.
