ONONDAGA COUNTY – All through the spring, the Baldwinsville softball team had performed well, yet had teased at something greater.

That “something” was in front of the Bees Thursday when it went to the Gillette Road complex and offered a challenge to undefeated top seed and defending champion Cicero-North Syracuse in the Section III Class AA semifinals.

To its immense credit, B’ville would give the Northstars as tough a game as anyone this spring, which made the 4-2 defeat a bit more difficult to take despite an admirable effort.

Getting there required B’ville to go through last Tuesday’s opening-round game against no. 5 seed Rome Free Academy, which didn’t prove too stressful as the Bees bashed the Black Knights 11-2.

A pair of first-inning runs was all that was needed, but B’ville got a run in the third and then, wearing down RFA’s pitching, struck for three runs in the fifth and five runs in the sixth.

Alyssa Dabacz had quite a game, from a home run to two doubles to a single as her four hits led to five RBIs, while Mattison Phinney drove in a pair of runs.

Bella Nazdan, Bianca DeSellems and Emma Johnson also drove in runs, giving ample support to Taylor Tripodi, who struck out 11 Black Knights batters and only allowed four hits in her complete-game effort.

Now it was C-NS, who had given the Bees three of its eight regular-season defeats, the first two of them lopsided (11-0 and 14-2), but the third a closer 8-4 decision. And the fourth encounter would prove closer still.

Tripodi was quickly in trouble when, in the bottom of the first, C-NS put two runners on base and Nicolette Kasch brought them around with a three-run home run.

From there, though, Tripodi settled down and only gave up a fifth-inning RBI to Danielle Filapello, ultimately limiting the potent Northstars lineup to just six hits overall while recording four strikeouts.

B’ville got single runs in the second and sixth innings, driven home by Dabacz’s triple and Kyrah Wilbur’s single, but managed just three hits overall against C-NS ace Cassidy Ormond, who struck out 10.

Having finished 9-9 overall, the Bees will see seven seniors depart, including Dabacz, Phinney, Johnson, Brooklin Ward and Jordan Martin, but could bring back the likes of Tripodi, Nazdan, DeSellems, Wilbur, Gabrielle Carr and Ayla Fleming for 2022.