Uneven weather in early April was what the Baldwinsville softball team had planned for.
Thus, the Bees did not have any games until it was in the warmer surroundings of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, where its games at the Ripken Experience Fields would include some local flavor – and total success.
No game was bigger than last Wednesday’s showdown with Auburn, the reigning Section III Class A champions, whom B’ville managed to handle in an impressive 9-1 victory.
A pair of first-inning runs set the tone, and the Maroons were blanked after its lone tally in the bottom of the first. B’ville plated runs in four consecutive innings from the third to the sixth, peaking with three runs in the fourth.
After an April 10 scrimmage with Elmira, met Jackson, from Northeast Ohio, last Monday and put up big totals at the plate on the way to a 13-3 victory over the Polar Bears.
Then, against Perry County (Kentucky), B’ville won again, 4-1, scoring single runs in the second, fourth, sixth and seventh innings to hold off the Commodores.
After topping Auburn, the Bees closed its trip with another impressive performance against Elmira Notre Dame from Section IV, prevailing 11-1.
A four-run first inning set a good tone, but B’ville kept going, tacking on a run in the second and six runs in the top of the fourth to put the game away.
Meanwhile, as the reigning Section III Class AA champions, the Baldwinsville baseball team knows quite well that every single opponent will want to knock them off.
And it goes beyond the usual SCAC Metro division rivals, for the Bees would open the 2022 season last Thursday taking on Christian Brothers Academy, who claimed the sectional Class A title a season ago.
Up for this challenge, B’ville shut out the Brothers 7-0, all but deciding matters in the first inning when it jumped all over CBA pitcher Luke Boule, going through the order and plating five runs.
Single runs in the second and fifth innings followed as Perry Chetney singled, walked twice and got a pair of RBIs. Jacob Penafeather, Reid Rachwal, Braden Seeber and Cameron Brennan drove in one run apiece.
Gavin Miller was sensational on the mound, going six innings and keeping the Brothers off the board as he struck out six and allowed just five hits. Rachwal worked a scoreless seventh inning.
Games against Whitesboro and Rome Free Academy were postponed late in the week, so the Bees hoped to resume with league showdowns against Fayetteville-Manlius, Liverpool and Cicero-North Syracuse – though the early-week winter storm threatened baseball and softball games for days.
