CENTRAL NEW YORK – The Section III softball playoffs got underway with East Syracuse Minoa and Bishop Grimes both aiming to make it out of the opening round.
As the no. 8 seed in Class AA, ESM hosted no. 9 seed Fulton Tuesday at Carrier Park, with the winner to face top seed Whitesboro in the quarterfinals.
And it proved to be quite an exciting game, the Spartans bolting out to a big lead but then needing some late-game production to fend off a furious Red Dragons rally and win it 8-7.
Fulton, who lost close 7-5 and 16-14 decisions to ESM in the regular season, got two runs in the top of the first inning, only to have the Spartans step up in the bottom of the second and go through its entire order while piling up six runs.
After the Red Dragons cut it to 6-4 in the fourth, ESM countered with its own two-run rally in the fifth that ultimately proved decisive as, battling back, Fulton netted two runs in the sixth and another in the seventh before Hannah Decker, who pitched a complete game, got the final outs.
Power helped for the Spartans as Brooke Kirkpatrick and Addison Adames both hit home runs, the pair combining for five RBIs as Decker aided her own cause by driving in two runs, Maddy Marquart added an RBI and Sydney Gurniak scored twice.
Bishop Grimes, holding the no. 19 seed in Class C, visited no. 14 seed Westmoreland last Monday afternoon for a first-round game where the Cobras fell to the Bulldogs 10-3.
It was close early, Grimes answering a Westmoreland run in the first inning with one in the top of the second. But it all turned when the Bulldogs got four runs in the third and two runs in the fourth.
Antonella Ascioti took the loss for the Cobras as Westmoreland picked up 16 hits, including Samantha Ferguson’s single, double and triple as Autumn Millington got three RBIs. Ascioti and Jenna Gardner each drove in runs for Grimes, who managed just three hits overall.
Three other local teams – Jamesville-DeWitt in Class A, Fayetteville-Manlius and Christian Brothers Academy in Class AA – begin their sectional runs on Thursday, F-M and CBA facing each other in the quarterfinals and J-D visiting Central Valley Academy.
