SYRACUSE – Get the Skaneateles baseball team into an extra-inning Section III Class B playoff game at Onondaga Community College, and it will find a way to win.
Recent history suggests this (see the 2019 sectional final), and in Saturday’s semifinal against Cortland, the Lakers did it again, outlasting the Purple Tigers 10-9 in 10 innings.
And it puts Skaneateles in Monday’s sectional final against its namesakes from Cazenovia, who in an emphatic manner avenged its 2022 title-game defeat to Westhillby prevailing 10-1 in the first semifinal.
Having upended unbeaten top seed South Jefferson in the quarterfinals, Skaneateles got the jump on Cortland with a trio of first-inning runs – two brought home by an error, another on a passed ball.
Though the Purple Tigers got on the board in the second, the Lakers answered with two runs in the fourth and led 5-1, a lead that pitcher Ben Underhill appeared to protect well – until Cortland chased him in the bottom of the sixth and tied it with a four-run rally.
Regulation ended 5-5, and it stayed even through the eighth inning. Then, in the top of the ninth, Skaneateles appeared to regain control with another three-run rally, with reliever Cade Lamphere set to win it.
But the Purple Tigers came back again, Ethan Johnson’s two-run triple the key blow in a three-run rally, though Lamphere was able to escape and get the game to the the 10th inning.
For a third time Skaneateles went out in front, Patrick Herr driving in both runs with a single. Once more Cortland tried to respond, but despite Caleb Albright’s triple in the bottom of the 10th, Lamphere, with the tying and winning runs on base, struck out Luke Rogoff to end it.
Herr went three-for-four, with Carter Corbett hit three times to go with a single and scoring four runs. Chad Lowe scored twice as he and Hugh Carroll both got two hits and Carroll earned a pair of RBIs.
And it all leads Skaneateles to face Cazenovia, whom it lost to twice in the regular season. Of course, Cazenovia had faced a similar situation with Westhill, not only losing last year’s sectional final, but an 8-0 game in April where Ryan Campbell no-hit those other Lakers.
Campbell was again on the mound, like Cazenovia counterpart Jack Byrnes working on three days’ rest after they both pitched in their team’s opening sectional games. One of these aces would handle the short turnaround a whole lot better.
With one out in the top of the first inning, Byrnes doubled. Cazenovia didn’t get another hit in the frame – but still scored three runs thanks to a series of walks, a botched rundown that allowed Byrnes to score, and a successful squeeze bunt by Nico Segall.
Though Westhill answered with a run in the bottom of the first, it didn’t stay close for long.
Sully Clarke reached base on an error to lead off the top of the second. Byrnes and Jack Donlin both walked to again load the bases, and Jacob Grevelding’s bloop two-run single made it 5-1, forcing Campbell to exit in favor of Dom Zawadzki.
Another grounder by Segall brought home another run and a wild pitch extended the margin to 7-1 and in the top of the third Clarke’s triple and Byrnes’ double, along with a hit from Donlin, gave the Lakers a 9-1 cushion.
All of this took pressure off Byrnes on the mound, but it didn’t affect the quality of his work. Striking out 10, Byrnes pitched a complete game, limiting Westhill to six hits and two walks and shutting it out over the course of his last six innings.
