Again, the Skaneateles baseball team neared the accomplishment of a Section III Class B championship, only to get thwarted.
Unlike 2017, when it reached the sectional title game before falling to Oneida, the Lakers were stopped in the semifinal round by an Adirondack side that erupted at the plate to prevail 17-3 Saturday at Onondaga Community College.
Going in, Skaneateles, the no. 3 seed, felt confident, having handled Utica-Notre Dame (7-0) and Holland Patent (10-6), a contrast to no. 2 seed Adirondack, who had to pull out one-run victories over Camden (4-3) and Homer (3-2) to get this far.
And the Lakers didn’t fret much when Adirondack took a 1-0 first-inning lead. Instead, in the top of the third it went out in front, 3-1, tagging Wildcats starting pitcher Alex Gaylord as Cregg Scherrer hit a two-run double and Tommy Reed’s infield hit that scored Scherrer.
Adirondack immediately answered against Jake Nesbitt, though, reclaiming the lead in the bottom of the third with a three-run rally of its own the key blow Ethan Martin’s bases-loaded single that scored two.
The decisive moment came in the top of the fourth. With two out and a runner on second, Skaneateles had Josh McCabe at the plate, and he was already two-for-two with a ground-rule double and single.
Defying conventional wisdom about putting the go-ahead run on base, the Wildcats intentionally walked McCabe, brining up Michael Murphy. But Gaylord struck out Murphy, leaving Scherrer on deck.
Right after, Adirondack broke it open, piling up six runs in the fourth and five more runs in the fifth. Each time, Mitchell Martin hurt the Lakers, delivering four RBIs from a triple and double to go with an earlier single, and poor defense (it finished with five errors) hurt Skaneateles, too.
By winning this game, Adirondack advances to Monday’s final against Westhill, who upended Canastota, Marcellus and defending champion Oneida in the semifinals to get this far.
