CENTRAL NEW YORK – An eight-game win streak bridging April and May had thrust the Solvay softball team back to prominence and to the short list of area Class B contenders.
Yet Jordan-Elbridge halted that run last Monday afternoon, gradually taking charge of the game and defeating the Bearcats by a score of 7-2.
Though Solvay got single runs in the first and third innings, J-E pitcher Abby DelFavero blanked them the rest of the way, picking up 10 strikeouts while allowing just five hits, two of them by Rachel Willsey.
Offensively, the Eagles gradually got to Jenna Wing, scoring twice in the third, fifth and sixth innings to go with a run in the fifth. Of J-E’s 12 hits, four were by Abby Hill, who drove in a pair of runs as Erin LaVancha was three-for-four and joined DelFavero in scoring twice.
Solvay then took a 4-3 defeat to Cazenovia two days later, unable to avenge a previous 9-6 defeat to the Lakers that had preceded the eight-game win streak.
Down 2-0, the Bearcats tie it in the bottom of the third, only to have Cazenovia score twice in the top of the fifth. Solvay got back within one in the bottom of the fifth but was blanked the last two innings, this despite Wing pitching and striking out nine.
Only Delaney Kaszubinski, with two hits, had multiple hits off Cazenovia pitcher Paige Reilley, her single and double leading to a pair of RBIs as Gianna D’Eredita also drove in a run. Willsey singled, reached base two other times and scored twice.
J-E, meanwhile, got past Port Byron 7-1, a particularly satisfying win given that the Panthers knocked out the Eagles in last spring’s sectional Class C playoffs.
A four-run second inning the key as DelFavero, despite allowing nine hits, constantly got out of trouble and finished with nine strikeouts.
Ava Hildebrant singled twice and drove in two runs, with LaVancha, Heather Sorts and Brooke Chiaramonte also driving in runs, Ahern adding two hits and Cameron Fraher scoring twice.
Getting together for the second game of the series on Thursday afternoon, J-E again got the best of Solvay, this time in a 4-2 battle.
Twice, the Bearcats took leads on run-scoring singles by Willsey. Both times, the Eagles rallied, scoring two runs in the bottom of the third to go ahead for good and adding an insurance run in the fifth.
LaVancha tripled, singled and drove in two of J-E’s runs, with Hildebrant scoring twice. DelFavero got an RBI and again pitched well, limiting Solvay to five hits.
West Genesee got back in action last Tuesday, trying again to knock off SCAC Metro division rival Liverpool, only to absorb a tough 4-3 defeat even closer than the 6-4 loss it took to the Warriors in mid-April.
A first-inning Liverpool run held up until WG tied it, 1-1, in the top of the fourth. It stayed that way until the bottom of the fifth, when the Warriors solved Wildcats pitcher Maria Brandt for three runs, Brooke Tyler’s clutch single driving in two of them.
Still, WG made it interesting, scoring twice in the top of the sixth to move within a run, only to see Mackenzie Frani get the final three outs to complete a game where she got 12 strikeouts against three hits and three walks allowed.
Anna Drogo drove in two of the Wildcats’ three runs, the other RBI going to Lorelai Leskoske as Alanna Bowman walked, singled and scored twice.
Another exciting game followed on Thursday, against Fayetetville-Manlius, with WG building a big early lead and nearly surrendering all of it before hanging on to edge the Hornets 8-7.
The Wildcats sprinted out to an 8-0 edge through three innings as Jenna Bookman doubled and drove in three runs, with Bowman and Brynlee Elkins getting two RBIs apiece and Drogo adding two hits.
Brandt kept it that way until F-M scored a run in the fourth and then put up five runs in the fifth inning to make it close. Leskoske relieved Brandt in the sixth and, though she allowed a run, was able to pitch a scoreless seventh to win it.
Bishop Ludden did not get on the board in last Tuesday’s game against state Class C no. 18-ranked Altmar-Parish-Williamstown as it lost, 15-0, to the Rebels, who had pitcher Isabelle Koegel hold the Gaelic Knights to just four hits.
