CENTRAL NEW YORK – Going into Memorial Day weekend, the Marcellus softball team was still charging toward a Section III Class B championship, with Solvay also after that prize but Jordan-Elbridge out of the running.
It was the no. 3 seed Eagles who were ousted in Thursday’s quarterfinals, falling 1-0 to no. 6 seed Cazenovia in a classic example of how seeing an opponent up close can turn things in that opponent’s favor.
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 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.
J-E, whose season again ended in a sectional quarterfinal (it fell to Port Byron in this same round in Class C a year ago), lost despite two hits apiece from DelFavero and Riley Hill, the other hits going to Neveah Foster and Erin LaVancha.
By contrast, Marcellus was again in top form in its quarterfinal, where it shut down no. 7 seed Sherburne-Earlville 9-0.
A four-run third inning got the Mustangs in front, and it more than doubled that margin in the fifth and sixth innings. Jill O’Connor drove in two runs, with Bryn Goldsworthy, Chloe Kuttruff and Janzen Long each scoring twice.
Again, a single run was all Bella Mondello needed. The Marcellus ace threw a one-hitter, recording nine strikeouts and only surrendering a pair of walks.
As for Solvay, it had a very different game at no. 4 seed Holland Patent, relying heavily on both the bat and pitching arm of Jenna Wing in a 10-5 victory over the Golden Knights.
The first three innings decided matters as the Bearcats had multiple runs in each of these frames while building a 7-0 advantage, then adding three runs in the fifth to make it 10-0 before HP even got on the board.
Through it all, Wing got three hits, scored three times and got three RBIs. Delaney Kaszubinski drove in a pair of runs, while Annabelle Stewart added an RBI. Jazmyne Darling and Ariana Ortiz both scored twice and Wing, despite some late struggles, threw a complete game with six strikeouts.
Solvay earned a spot in Saturday’s semifinal at Carrier Park against top seed Utica Notre Dame,who knocked out Skaneateles 4-1 in the quarterfinal round.
The Lakers did get a run in the top of the sixth, but only after the Jugglers scored twice in the second and again in the fourth and fifth innings. Skaneateles got just two hits off UND pitcher Ella Trinkaus as Erin Trinkaus picked up three hits.
Westhill only lasted one round in the sectional Class A playoffs, the no. 7 seed Warriors traveling to no. 2 seed New Hartford in Thursday’s quarterfinal round and taking a 5-1 defeat to the Spartans.
A pair of first-inning runs got New Hartford in front. The Warriors cut it to 2-1 in the top of the sixth when Alexa Korrie singled and scored, but the Spartans drew clear with three runs in the bottom of the sixth off Samantha Snyder led by Norah Gailulo, who doubled, tripled and drove in three runs.
