CENTRAL NEW YORK – Putting its season-opening four-game win streak on the line, the Solvay baseball team hosted Skaneateles on a hot, sunny Friday afternoon at the end of a busy and full week for both sides.
This game proved a good one, too, the Lakers scoring three times in the first inning and going up 4-0 before the Bearcats struck for five runs in the bottom of the fifth to go in front.
However, Skaneateles had the final push, a two-run sixth and three-run seventh enough to produce a 9-7 victory as Cal Anna and Casey Kenan led the visiors with five total hits and four RBIs.
Sean Olley, Chad Lowe, Hugh Carroll and Keelan Maren also drove in runs. In defeat, Solvay got two hits apiece from Aaron Trendell and Sam Gonzalez, with Jaylen King getting a pair of RBIs.
Before all this, Solvay found itself in a thriller last Tuesday against Chittenango, the Bearcats rallying multiple times to edge the Bears 9-8 for its third win in a row.
A four-run first inning by Chittenango forced Solvay into catch-up mode. It tied the game 5-5 by the end of the second, only to have the Bears regain an 8-5 edge going into the bottom of the fifth.
Again bouncing back, Solvay tied it, 8-8, and got the winning run two innings later, having seen Gonzalez earn three hits and match Jordan Dippold’s pair of RBIs. Jacob Bigelow and Joe Perez earned two hits apiece.
In non-league action on Thursday, Solvay bashed Onondaga 17-5, getting 13 runs in the first two innings to quickly put the game away. Gray Caldron picked up three hits as he, along with Bigelow, Max Overend and Cameron Cappetta, put up two RBIs apiece. Cappetta also pitched five innings, recording eight strikeouts.
Rebounding from a loss to Westhill two days earlier, Skaneateles put senior Scott Scherrer on the mound against Bishop Grimes last Wednesday afternoon, and he shut down the Cobras in a one-hit, 10-0 gem.
Striking out six and surrendering just a single walk, Scherrer was helped by two-run third and fourth inning and a six-run fifth as Chad Lowe managed three RBIs, with Nate Shattuck and Hugh Carroll each driving in single runs.
Marcellus got a dominant pitching performance from Ethan Snyder in last Monday’s 2-0 shutout of East Syracuse Minoa, Snyder only allowing two hits and one walk while striking out 11.
The game was 0-0 until the bottom of the fifth, when the Mustangs netted both of its runs, one each scored by Snyder and Ryder Donahue, who had three of his team’s five hits. John Francesconi was credited with an RBI.
Another close game took place a day later, but Marcellus was able to edge Mexico 6-5 in eight, this after seeing a 4-1 lead in regulation get away when the Tigers netted a run in the sixth and three runs in the top of the seventh.
Trailing 5-4, Marcellus got back even in the bottom of the seventh as Donahue tripled and scored on an error, and won it an inning later when it loaded the bases and Donahue returned to single home Gavin Mumford with the decisive run. Overall, Donahue went four-for-five. Francesconi also earned a pair of RBIs.
Then Marcellus ran into Cazenovia Thursday and took a 15-2 loss, the only production coming from Francesconi’s two-run single in the bottom of the third. Jack Byrnes led the Lakers with a home run as he, along with Nico Segall and Jacob Cox, had three RBIs apiece.
