CENTRAL NEW YORK – Something may have turned around when, in a 24-hour span, the Cazenovia baseball team swept a doubleheader from Altmar-Parish-Williamstown and then shut out reigning Section III Class B champion Skaneateles.
Still with momentum from those efforts, the Lakers were dominant in last Monday’s game at Jordan-Elbridge, again reaching double digits as it beat the Eagles 14-1.
A five-run second inning and six-run third inning decided matters, with Jack Donlin getting a double, triple and three RBIs. Jack Byrnes and A.J. Rothfeld each drove in two runs as Izaak Gilbert added an RBI. Jacob Grevelding struck out five in his complete-game effort.
A much bigger game loomed Wedneday at Westhill, where the Lakers could not take advantage of an early opportunity and, with a string of mistakes that quickly ollowed, lost 11-1 to the Warriors.
In the top of the first, Byrnes doubled, Donlin walked and Rothfeld hit a ground-rule double to score Byrnes, and the Lakers loaded the bases with nobody out.
However, Westhill pitcher Mike Madigan escaped that jam and the Warriors promptly scored three runs in the bottom of the first off Donlin, including a pair of bases-loaded walks.
A series of defensive mistakes in the second inning led to seven Westhill runs. Donlin was pulled and, while relievers Ben Orbach and Jacob Szalach did better, Cazenovia could not recover.
Two days later, Cazenovia met up with Phoenix, a team it lost to 3-0 two weeks earlier. But with five runs in the first and third innings, the Lakers did all it needed to beat the Firebirds 10-1.
Byrnes again pitched a gem, holding Phoenix to three hits and amassing 12 strikeouts. Those early rallies included two RBIs from Jacob Szalach as he, along with Donlin, Sully Clarke and Taven Reilley, had two hits apiece. Izaak Gilbert joined Byrnes, Grevelding, Clarke and Reilley in the RBI column.
Chittenango found itself scoring lots of runs in last Monday’s battle with Marcellus, but the Bears still took a 14-11 defeat to the Mustangs.
David Bruno, Ty Kelly and Kyle Peryer each finished with two hits. Bruno and Kelly drove in two runs apiece, with single RBIs going to Peryer and Carlos Torres-Carman as, for Marcellus, Colin Johnson, Hunter Byrne, Ryder Donahue and Ian Potter each had three hits, with Byrne and Adam Sullivan getting three RBIS apeice.
In Friday’s game with Oneida, the Bears prevailed 5-4, this despite just three hits. Two of them were from Bruno and Austin Khammar, who drove in two runs apiece.
