JORDAN – After waiting six years to win a Section III playoff game, the Cazenovia softball team only had to wait 48 hours to get the next one – much to the surprise of just about anybody outside the Lakers’ dugout.
With tremendous pitching and patience, Cazenovia, the no. 6 seed, stunned no. 3 seed Jordan-Elbridge 1-0 Thursday afternoon in the Class B quarterfinals, in an instance where lots of experience with the Eagles may have played a key role in the outcome.
These same two teams had played a doubleheader a week earlier. J-E won them, but the initial 3-0 encounter was followed by a 6-5, 10-inning epic which required the Eagles to score twice in the seventh inning to erase a 5-3 Lakers lead.
Filing all of this away, Cazenovia, who battled past Phoenix 3-2 in a tense opening-round game two days earlier, returned and saw its sophomore pitching ace, Paige Reilley, adjust and confuse the Eagles’ hitters through seven scoreless regulation innings.
Yet it remained 0-0 because J-E pitcher Abby DelFavero was just as good, only allowing four hits while accumulating 13 strikeouts and, again, pushing the game into extra frames.
This time, though, it didn’t go beyond the eighth inning. Cadence Walter singled and Cazenovia loaded the bases, then saw DelFavero hit Sophie Wilmot, which brought home Walter.
Reilley then got the final three outs, having given up six hits and two walks but earning nine strikeouts. Lucy Bliss had two of Cazenovia’s four hits, with Wilmot adding a hit.
Again, Cazenovia will find itself an underdog in Saturday’s semifinal at Carrier Park where it faces no. 2 seed Marcellus, a team it lost to by 15-0 and 15-6 margins back in April. The winner returns to Carrier Park and gets Utica Notre Dame or Solvay in Tuesday’s 4:30 final.
