CENTRAL NEW YORK – Two wins in two games on its spring-break trip to Tennessee had given the Baldwinsville softball team a welcome boost before it met more tough competition back home.
Hosting Section II power Averill Park in last Tuesday’s home opener, the Bees were done in by a pair of big hits during a 6-1 defeat to the Warriors.
Both in the third and seventh innings, Averill Park struck for home runs – a three-run shot by Riley O’Brien and a two-run blast by Maisie Dawson.
Those were most of what pitcher Bella Hotchkiss (four innings) and Jenna DiLiberto (three innings) gave up, though the pair did combine for 13 strikeouts while allowing eight hits.
B’ville’s lone run came in the bottom of the seventh, when Francesca DeSantis drove home Juilanna Gingrich, who with Madalynn Gulich had two hits apiece off Warriors pitcher Taylor Schoonmaker.
At Christian Brothers Academy a day later, the Bees quickly found its winning form again, piling up runs from start to finish and stomping the Brothers 21-6, led by Gingrich, who smashed a gran slam and had two other hits.
Every single player in the B’ville lineup reached base and scored at least one run, including Gingrich and Hadlei Parnell, who doubled twice, walked and crossed the plate five times by game’s end.
Ayla Fleming scored three runs as she and Gingrich both finished with three hits. Gulich scored three runs, with Hotchkiss, Leah VerSchneider, Layla Trendowski and Hannah Caughey notching two hits apiece.
A big week awaits the Bees as it twice faces Auburn with a trip to Cicero-North Syracuse in between, the second game with the Maroons part of the ALS Tournament also taking place at C-NS’s Gillette Road complex.
