CENTRAL NEW YORK – Without a deep history of post-season success, the Chittenango softball team turned it all around in 2023, breaking barriers and hinting at even more glory ahead.
Only the program’s first-ever Section III championship would satisfy the Bears and its faithful fans – and they would get it Wednesday at Carrier Park, riding Caroline Porter’s superb pitching to a 4-0 victory over Westhill.
Having got to the sectional final with a 19-1 record, Chittenango faced a Warriors side it beat 8-4 early in May, but had gone on a memorable post-season run that included a quarterfinal upset of two-time defending sectional champion Marcellus and a semifinal win over Utica-Notre Dame, who had ousted unbeaten top seed Camden.
Porter was ready for all of this – on multiple fronts.
From the outset, Porter started piling up strikeouts against Westhill’s lineup, helped at first by the Bears putting across a run in the bottom of the first inning.
Then, in the second, Porter stepped up to the plate and, with two runners in scoring position, drilled a single that plated both of them to make it 3-0.
Inning after inning, the zeroes kept piling up, Porter quieting the Warriors’ bats, while Chittenango tacked on a run in the fourth as Lauren Machan tripled, singled and scored twice, with Brianna Tooke adding two hits and an RBI.
Only in the top of the seventh was there any real drama. Westhill’s Alexa Korrie hit a ground-rule double and two others reached to load the bases with nobody out, but Porter retired three straight, running her strikeout total to 14, and preserved the sectional title.
Back on May 25, the entire sectional tournament changed when Camden was stunned by Utica-Notre Dame and Marcellus lost to Westhill This seemed to open up the bracket for the Bears, who easily avoided any upset bid in the quarterfinals against no. 7 seed Canastota, roaring to a 16-1 victory.
It was close until Chittenango struck for five runs in the bottom of the third, adding three runs in the fourth and batting around in the fifth for six runs.
Porter only allowed one hit and picked up 15 strikeouts. All but one Chittenango player scored a run as Anna Spencer and Anna Cavotta had three hits apiece, with Mackenna Palko’s pair of hits turning into three RBIs. Spencer and Stephanie Huckabee each drove in two runs.
Now it was the Bears hosting no. 6 seed Central Valley Academy in the May 27 sectional semifinal, where any concerns about a tough start were quickly erased in the decisive second inning of a 10-4 win over the Thunder.
CVA had scored twice in the top of the first. Chittenango answered with a run in the bottom of the first, but saved its best stuff for the second.
Batting once around the order, the Bears didn’t let up until seven runs had crossed the plate. Ultimately, Chittenango would get 15 hits as all but one of its batters got at least one hit.
Machan’s three singles led to three RBIs. Spencer, Huckabee and Anna Cavotta each scored twice, with Huckabee also earning three hits. Tooke joined Spencer on two hits.
Porter alllowed 10 hits, but other than a two-inning Thunder rallly in the fifth kept it quiet, recording six strikeouts
