ONONDAGA COUNTY – While the Baldwinsville softball team always had this Thursday’s visit from Liverpool highlighted on its schedule, it first had to deal with the other long-time traditional Class AA power first.
And the Bees did so with a fair amount of success, pushing across all of its runs late in last Thursday’s game against Cicero-North Syracuse and going on to beat the Northstars 8-3.
They were scoreless until the bottom of the fourth inning, when B’ville netted three runs off Lilian Hotaling, then tacked on five more runs in the next two frames against reliever Payton Bach.
Layla Trendowski led the attack, piling up four of the Bees’ 15 hits and scoring twice. Julianna Gingrich, who hit a grand slam the week before, notched two hits and scored twice, as did Francesca DeSantis.
Leah VerSchneider, Ayla Fleming, Madalynn Gulich, Brooke Nicholson and Hannah Caughey all drove in runs during that late flurry.
Bella Hotchkiss pitched 5 1/3 scoreless innings, walking six but striking out six, watching as two relievers, Nicholson and Jenna DiLberto, got the final outs despite C-NS trying to rally with a three-run seventh that included Isabella Moya’s solo home run.
In Saturday’s ALS Classic at the Gillette Road complex, B’ville met Auburn, who had lost to Liverpool two days earlier, but the Maroons would rebound in a big way here, prevailing 5-2 and getting its first win over the Bees since 2015.
They were scoreless when, in the top of the third, Auburn struck for three runs off Jenna DiLiberto, who got the start. Hotchkiss went the remaining four innings, giving up two runs in the fifth.
Down 5-0, B’ville did score twice in the bottom of the fifth, Gulich and Marissa McCloud crossing the plate, but drew no closer. All the Bees could manage was four hits, two of them by VerSchneider, off Maroons pitcher Madison Lowe.
This big game with Liverpool was scheduled in between trips to Fayetetville-Manlius and Rome Free Academy as B’ville looked to build upon its 5-2 record.
