While it was familiar for Jamesville-DeWitt and more novel for Christian Brothers Academy, the ending was the same – proudly holding a Section III championship banner on Memorial Day at Carrier Park.
For the top-seed Red Rams, repeating as Class A champions required fending off a strong challenge from no. 2 seed Whitesboro to prevail 3-2 and earn another shot a long-elusive state crown.
CBA, on the other hand, had won just one sectional championship, in 2012, and earned its second through a series of comebacks in the sectional tournament, none more important than its 4-2 win over Oneida in the Class B title game.
Already in the sectional playoffs, the Brothers had come from two runs down to edge Jordan-Elbridge 3-2 in the round of 16 and from six runs down to knock off reigning state champion Solvay 13-8 in the quarterfinals.
Pulling this off against Oneida, who held the no. 2 spot in the state rankings, seemed a far more difficult task, but the familiar pattern of falling behind, and rallying from it, served CBA well one more time.
Other than a pair of first-inning hits, the Brothers could do little in the early stages against Indians pitcher Kyra Sholtzhauer, who was staked to a 2-0 lead when Oneida notched single runs in each of the first two innings.
In order to stay in it, CBA pitcher Maddy Tallman had to settle down – which she did, tossing scoreless third and fourth innings before Julia Boule took over in relief in the fifth.
Entering the top of the sixth, the Brothers still trailed 2-0, which, as it turned out, was prime position.
With one out, Emily Hall walked. Boule was next, and she doubled, just the third hit off Sholtzhauer, and it scored Hall. Bridget O’Hern stepped up and, with a single, brought home Boule with the tying run.
When Abby Benware got her turn, she matched Boule’s double, allowing O’Hern to cross the plate with the go-ahead run. Not content with that, CBA added a run in the seventh when Victoria Hall reached base and got home on Emily Hall’s single.
Having initiated the winning rally, Boule went back to her pitching duties and shut out Oneida over the last three innings, only allowing a pair of walks and retiring the Indians in order in the seventh to end it.
A couple of hours earlier, J-D added yet another sectional title to its long record of achievement, though it proved quite stressful.
Andrea Sumida’s first-inning triple led to a run when Shayna Myshrall singled. Two more runs followed in the third thanks to four hits, two of them by Sumida and Myshrall, the other two RBI singles by Sarina Alexander and Katie White.
For a long while, that 3-0 lead looked plenty safe since the Red Rams’ left-handed pitcher, Amanda Sumida, constantly found her way out of trouble, with Whitesboro constantly putting runners on base but Sumida recording 11 strikeouts.
Yet it was still 3-0 going to the top of the seventh because, as head coach Jeff Cantor put it, his team could not take advantage of many other scoring opportunities.
So there was a chance for Whitesboro, and in the seventh the Warriors almost caught up. Singles by Chloe Weller and Sarah Hovey and a wild pitch put them in scoring position and, with two out, Jen Sciortino and Madison Cieslak delivered back-to-back RBI singles.
With the tying run on base and the go-ahead run at the plate, Sumida got Hannah Horan to fly out and end the game.
On Thursday, J-D faces the Section II champion in the regional round at Malta. Two days later, at Union-Endicott High School near Binghamton, CBA challenges state no. 1-ranked Susquehanna Valley in its regional final.
