BALDWINSVILLE – Even with a 15-1 record, and even with a no. 16 state Class AA ranking, the Baldwinsville softball team understood that its path to a championship ran straight through the only team it had lost to so far.
So when the Bees hosted state no. 22-ranked Liverpool Wednesday at Ray Middle School, it hoped to turn around the 13-0 defeat it took to the Warriors late in April.
And it did so, in a complete and comprehensive manner.
Now it was B’ville pulling off the shutout, as Taylor Tripodi’s masterful pitching, a well-timed burst of power from Bella Nadzan and a few insurance runs produced a 5-0 victory.
Again facing Warriors pitching ace Cassie Wiggins, the Bees put two runners on base in the bottom of the first inning, only to have Bianca DeSellems hit into a double play.
Meanwhile, Tripodi was amassing six strikeouts in her first three innings, and would get all the help she needed in the bottom of the third.
Hadley Michaels reached base on an error. Two batters later, Grace Branshaw bunted and popped out, and Michaels was nearly doubled off first base, but the ball was dropped.
This gave Nadzan a chance to hit – and the right-hander drilled a Wiggins pitch the opposite way, over the right-field fence for a two-run home run.
Staked to that 2-0 lead, Tripodi did not allow a hit until the top of the sixth, when Brooke Tyler led off with a single. But Tyler was stranded when Tripodi recorded her ninth and 10th strikeouts of the game and induced Julia Wike to fly out.
Then, in the bottom of the sixth, the Bees clinched it with three runs. Nadzan reached on an infield hit, went to third on DeSellems’ bunt and scored on a a grounder by Bella Hotchkiss. Ayla Fleming followed with an RBI single and Michaels added a run-scoring single.
B’ville warmed up for the showdown with a 12-1 win over West Genesee a day earlier, when the Bees honored its group of six seniors – Tripodi, Nadzan, Michaels, DeSellems, Branshaw and Molly DiLiberto.
Then the game started, and in the bottom of the third B’ville struck for five runs. Not content with that, the Bees put together a decisive fifth inning where it scored six times.
Branshaw took advantage of the win and smashed a home run, as did Hadlei Parnell, the pair both getting three RBIs as Fleming drove in two runs. Nazdan, Hotchkiss and Leah VerSchneider drove in one run apiece as Tripodi and DeSellems combined on a one-hitter that included 13 strikeouts.
And after the win over Liverpool, B’ville again met West Genesee, this time in Camillus Friday afternoon, and with a 14-3 victory locked up its first-ever SCAC Metro division regular-season title, shared with the Warriors.
Single runs in the first and second innings were followed by seven runs in the next two frames that made it 9-0, and Tripodi, who pitched and got 12 strikeouts, pounded a home run to go with a double and single.
Nadzan also had three hits, scoring three times as she, along with Tripodi and DeSellems, drove in two runs apiece. Hotchkiss tripled and had a team-best three RBIs as VerSchneider, Fleming and Parnell each got one RBI.
Despite the 17-1 overall mark, B’ville was still the no. 2 seed in a four-team Section III Class AA playoff bracket and will need to beat no. 3 seed Cicero-North Syracuse in the semifinals at Onondadga Community College to earn a berth in the June 1 sectional final at Carrier Park against Liverpool or Rome Free Academy.
