ONONDAGA COUNTY – Once more, the Baldwinsville softball team found itself pushed into extra innings with Liverpool and, once more, it could not finish on top.
Of course, the stakes last Tuesday at Carrier Park differed from the 2022 Section III Class AA title game, but the 2-1, 10-inning defeat left another reminder of how a tremendous effort can go unrewarded.
Having defeated Liverpool 5-2 when they last met April 27, B’ville again had Bella Hotchkiss on the mound and, again, Cassie Wiggins started against her.
The pair soon found themselves in a tight duel, going through seven regulation innings with neither side able to push across a run.
Hotchkiss kept going into the ninth as, for Liverpool, Mackenzie Frani relieved Wiggins. They stayed 0-0 through that frame, too, leading to a 10th inning where a runner would get placed on second base.
B’ville was able to get a run home to lead 1-0, only to have Liverpool have Frani reach base and then have Tristan LaForte single home both runs to win it.
Maybe this had a lingering effect, for on Thursday B’ville faced West Genesee and lost, 8-4, to the Wildcats.
It was close and low-scoring most of the way, the Bees only trailing 3-2 before WG erupted for five runs in the top of the seventh, creating a big enough cushion to withstand B’ville’s late comeback attempt.
Jenna Martin did drive in a pair of runs, with Hannah Caughey adding an RBI and earning a pair of hits. Emma Monaghan hit a home run for the Wildcats as she drove in two runs, as did Alanna Bowman and Anna Drogo.
Those defeats left B’ville with a mark of 10-10 and it drew the no. 6 seed for the Section III Class AA playoffs. In Thursday’s quarterfinal, the Bees will face no. 3 seed Rome Free Academy, with whom it split two regular-season meetings, the winner to advance to Saturday’s semifinal against no. 2 seed Cicero-North Syracuse or no. 7 seed Fayetteville-Manlius.
