Safe to say that the Baldwinsville softball team was really eager to start the 2025 season.
Still smarting after it fell to Cicero-North Syracuse in last May’s Section III Class AAA semifinals, the Bees finally emerged from a long off-season of work with a sparkling effort in its April 5 opener against Auburn.
B’ville mauled the Maroons 22-0, putting across five runs in both the first and second innings and adding seven runs in the third on the way to 29 hits, at least one for 12 of the 13 players in the lineup.
Aleena Giarusso led by going four-for-four, all singles, and driving in two runs. Marissa McCloud, Jenna Martin, Julianna Gingrich, Frankie DeSantis and Isabella Koskowski got three hits apiece.
Gingrich doubled twice as she and DeSantis both earned four RBIs. Mackenzie Southworth drove in three runs as Ella Amato and Sam Hass joined Martin and Giarusso earning two RBIs.
A week later, it was off to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee for a series of games at the Ripken Experience complex, something that was welcome for the Bees after all the snow and rain during the week here.
The first game was against Barron County (Kentucky), who won 18-0. McCloud’s hit was the only one the Bees would manage as pitcher Mya Huntington tok the loss.
Far closer was a game against another Kentucky school, East Jessamine, where B’ville used two runs in the sixth inning and another in the bottom of the seventh to get it to extra frames.
However, an eighth-inning run allowed the Jaguars to edge the Bees 6-5 as McCloud and DeSantis both earned a pair of hits. Gingrich doubled and drove in two runs as Martin added an RBI and Southworth went all 11 innings in the pitcher’s circle.
Two days later playing Poughkeepsie Lourdes, B’ville again found itself behind, but just when it looked dire a late-game comeback produced a stunning 11-10 victory.
Lourdes scored three runs in the first and, with a four-run rally in the top of the fourth, had a 7-0 advantage before the Bees got on the board with four runs of its own in the bottom of the fourth.
Netting three runs in the fifth, Lourdes restored its margin to 10-4, but in the bottom of the sixth B’ville batted around, making up ground and then putting up the tying and go-ahead runs – seven in all in that frame.
Southworth’s home run was a big blow as she finished with three RBIs. Huntington drove in a pair of runs, with Giarusso, Amato and Koskowski each scoring twice. Southworth had to pitch, too, hanging in there through Lourdes’ early success and recording a scoreless seventh inning to win it as she finished with seven strikeouts.
After all this, B’ville carried all kinds of momentum into its final game of the trip against Upper Sandusky (Ohio), where it unloaded for 26 hits in a 23-5 victory.
Already up 4-0, the Bees broke it open in the top of the fourth, batting around twice and amassing 14 runs. By game’s end, each of the 13 players in B’ville’s lineup had recorded at least one hit.
Amato was joined by DeSantis, McCloud and Alexis Hull getting three hits apiece. Giarusso, Southworth, Huntington, Martin, Gingrich and Katelyn Pearce each had two hits.
Giarusso’s pair of doubles led to a team-best four RBIs. McCloud, Gingrich, DeSantis and Huntington drove in three runs apiece and Southworth added a pair of RBIs.
Meanwhile, the B’ville baseball team, back from its trip the previous week to the Disney Wide World of Sports complex in Florida, met Syracuse City last Thursday at Onondaga Community College and won by a score of 5-1.
Three pitchers – Joey Warner (3 1/3 innings), Ben Leaton (2 2/3 innings) and Luke Revette (one inning) – combined to hold Syracuse to three hits, Leaton getting six strikeouts in his stint.
They all were helped by the Bees striking for four runs in the bottom of the first, all it would need. Jacob Penafeather tripled, doubled and drove in a pair of runs, with Jace Albero’s pair of singles leading to two RBIs as he scored twice and Joey Gennario drove in the other run.
