CENTRAL NEW YORK – Warm weather, unusual for early April, meant that every area high school softball team could get in a full slate of games earlier than anticipated.
And it was here that Jamesville-DeWitt took the field for the first time, the Red Rams meeting Central Square last Tuesday and earning a 7-4 victory over the Redhawks.
Single runs in the third and fourth innings got J-D in front, but it took charge with a four-run fifth as Hannah Trevisani hit her team’s first home run of the season.
Trevsiani got two RBIs, with Emily Bulone and Kaira McMahon both driving in single runs. McMahon also scored twice and pitched 5 1/3 innings before Kayla McQuaid did the rest in relief.
J-D followed up Thursday by beating Oswego 10-1, but would get a far bigger test on Saturday when two Section V teams, Webster Thomas and Pittsford Mendon, met the Rams at Carrier Park.
The Rams split those games, losing to Thomas 4-3 but beating Mendon 6-1 to finish a 3-1 season-opening stretch.
Against Thomas, J-D fell behind 4-0, only to rally in the seventh inning and nearly catch up, Trevisani getting a two-run double and McQuaid also driving in a run, but the Titans held on, getting four runs off McMahon before McQuaid had two scoreless innings of relief.
The Mendon game included more drama, J-D tied 1-1 until the top of the seventh, when it struck for five decisive runs. Bulone’s home run, single and three RBIs led the way as McQuaid, who pitched four innings as she again split duties with McMahon, drove in a pair of runs and Amanda Aiken added an RBI.
East Syracuse Minoa blasted past Syracuse City 29-2 last Tuesday, scoring 12 runs in the first inning and 10 runs in the third on the way to 20 hits overall.
Juliana Orcutt had the only home run and finished with five RBIs. Olivia Goff and Madelin Marquart each drove in four runs, with Ava Burry, Brooke Kirkpatrick, Maya Boots and Sara Brefka each gaining three RBIs.
In a far closer game on Thursday, ESM battled past Cortland 11-8, overcoming an early 2-0 deficit with eight runs in the first two innings, but still needing single runs in the third, fifth and sixth.
Among the 13 hits were home runs by Goff and Marquart, who finished with three RBIs. Ava Meyer and Keira Poweski each drove in two runs as Burry and Juilana Orcutt scored twice.
ESM hosted Chittenango on Saturday and lost, 7-2, to the Bears, only getting single runs in the fourth and fifth innings as Goff and Orcutt drove in those runs.
