The presence of 26 teams in the Section III Class B playoffs was, in theory, quite beneficial to the Skaneateles baseball team, whose terrific regular season earned it the no. 3 seed.
That was because 20 of the teams would have to go through an opening-round game, including the Lakers’ first opponent, no. 19 seed Utica-Notre Dame, who went to extra innings to take out no. 14 seed Solvay.
After a 24-hour rain postponement that gave the Jugglers a chance to rest, Skaneateles entered the fray on Wednesday armed with its ace, Cregg Scherrer, who mowed down UND hitters all the way through the Lakers’ 7-0 victory.
Of the 21 outs Scherrer recorded, 19 of them were strikeouts, and he only allowed one hit, a single from Eli Neth.
Meanwhile, Skaneateles waited until the third inning to jump on Jugglers pitcher Matt Kelly, striking for six runs as it batted around its order before tacking on another run in the fifth.
Not content with his pitching dominance, Scherrer also drove in two runs. Every Lakers batter got at least one hit (11 in all) as Luke Viggiano and Jacob Nesbitt had two hits apiece, with Viggiano, Tommy Reed, Kenny Peterson and Christian Daley getting one RBI apiece.
Without any rest, Skaneateles returned 24 hours later to face no.6 seed Holland Patent in the quarterfinals. The Golden Knights had blanked Bishop Grimes 10-0 to get this far, and were tough here, too, but the Lakers put them away 10-6.
In the bottom of the first, Scherrer’s two-run double and Viggiano’s sacrifice fly created a quick 3-0 lead, and the Lakers added two more on the second, pulling off a double steal as Josh McCabe raced home during Michael Murphy’s swipe of second base.
Still up 5-1, the Lakers answered HP’s two-run fourth inning with two of its own in the bottom of the fourth, again driven in by Scherrer thanks to a single.
Then things got real nervous in the sixth. Trailing 7-3, the Golden Knights struck for a run, forcing Peterson, the starting pitcher, out in favor of McCabe, who gave up one more run but left the tying and go-ahead runs on base as HP left the bases loaded.
Relieved by this, Skaneateles restored its cushion thanks to three runs in the bottom of the sixth. Jimmy Libeartore’s RBI single followed two throwing errors, an errant pickoff and wild pitch, that allowed the other runs to score.
Skaneateles advances to Saturday’s sectional semifinal at Onondaga Community College against no. 2 seed Adirondack, who got past Camden (4-3) and Homer (3-2) by narrow margins. The winner there will face Oneida or Westhill in Monday’s sectional final.
Before all this, the Skaneateles softball team, who was the no. 22 seed in its Class B sectional bracket, made an early exit last Monday afternoon, held to a single run in a 9-1 defeat to no. 11 seed Camden.
The Blue Devils scored five runs in the bottom of the second to take charge, and though the Lakers did get on the board in the fourth, it never could catch up as Camden advanced to face Holland Patent in the next round.
