The Cazenovia softball team’s 2019 regular-season debut was quite a memorable one.
Trailing by a pair of runs early in last Monday’s game against Chittenango, the Lakers relied on stellar pitching and timely efforts at the plate to earn a 3-2 victory over the Bears.
Chittenango, who had defeated Canastota in its April 6 opener, appeared ready to strike again when Jada Masciat and Sydney Pellman drove in first-running runs, Cassidy Kelly and Jenna Osborne scoring.
From there, though, Cazenovia pitcher Samantha Morgan blanked the Bears through the last six innings, only allowing four hits and one walk while striking out six.
Meanwhile, the Lakers chipped away against Kelly, who pitched for the Bears. Single runs in the second and third innings tied it, 1-1, and Cazenovia went ahead with another tally in the bottom of the fifth.
Morgan scored twice to aid her own cause as the trio of Hannah Matteson, Mackenzie Waite and Autumn Paddock finished with one RBI apiece.
Having already won a close game, Cazenovia did so again on Wednesday against Phoenix, blowing a four-run lead, but recovering to prevail over the Firebirds 5-4 in nine innings.
Though the Lakers were the home team, the game was played in Phoenix, where steady production in the first five innings had Cazenovia in front 4-0.
But then Phoenix got to Lakers pitcher Elora Wilmot in the top of the sixth, Katie Kimball’s two-run single the big blow in a four-run rally that tied it, 4-4.
Wilmot settled down and did not allow a hit in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings while amassing 13 strikeouts to overcome eight walks. Finally, in the bottom of the ninth Cazenovia pushed across the winning run.
Five different Lakers – Wilmot, Matteson, Kylie Fenton, Mackenzie Waite and Maddie Waite – had two hits apiece, with Morgan and Paddock each scoring a pair of runs.
This terrific opening week for Cazenovia continued on Friday when it shut out Cortland 10-0, Morgan keeping the Purple Tigers off the board and amassing 14 strikeouts against just three hits allowed.
The game was close until the sixth inning, when the Lakers struck for five runs, adding four runs in the seventh as Fenton’s pair of hits led to three RBIs. Maddie Young got three hits and drove in two runs, with Morgan adding a double and two RBIs. Matteson, Paddock and Wilmot earned one RBI apiece.
Chittenango lost a 5-1 decision to Altmar-Parish-Williamstown, unable to catch up after the Rebels scored four runs in the bottom of the second, two of them driven in by Helaina Hale’s double.
Despite 11 hits, two each by Pellman, Savannah Penoyer, Jada Masciat and Avery Salce, the Bears only got a fourth-inning run, Salce’s double driving home Madison Wagner.
