CENTRAL NEW YORK – Off to a 1-1 start, the Chittenango softball team would gain quite a victory early in the week of the April school break.
Hosting Liverpool, the reigning Section III Class AAA champions, last Monday afternoon the Bears heavily relied on the duo of Lauren Machan and Makenna Palko to defeat the Warriors 3-0.
Machan had perhaps her best pitching performance to date, limiting Liverpool’s batters to just four hits, two of them by Emily Nestor, while recording nine strikeouts and not surrendering a walk.
It was 0-0 until the bottom of the fourth inning, when Palko drove home the game’s first run with a single off Warriors pitcher Lexi Goodfellow. She then added a two-run double in the bottom of the sixth for insurance as Machan, Alivia Cavotta and Julianna Coon scored those runs.
Placed at no. 12 in the first state Class A rankings of the spring, Chittenango faced Canastota on Thursday afternoon and took just five innings to put away the Raiders 13-1.
Three-run rallies in the first and second innings were followed by a seven-run fifth as Machan and Cavotta picked up three RBIs apiece, combining for five of the Bears’ 10 hits.
Makenna Palko singled, doubled and drove in two runs, with Isabella Battiana-McClusky, Danica Oppenheimer and Annabelle Granata earning one RBI apiece. Coon scored three runs.
This was a prelude to big games late in the week against Oneida and Cicero-North Syracuse before it takes on Phoenix, Solvay and Altmar-Parish-Williamstown as students return to school next week.
Cazenovia took a 2-1 record into Monday’s game against East Syracuse Minoa but was tripped up in a 12-4 defeat to the Spartans.
A five-run third inning put ESM in control. Most of the Lakers’ offense came in a three-run third as Gianna Comino had two hits and an RBI.
Irie Gallerani, who pitched another complete game, took the loss as she joined Lucy Bliss, Caitee Fenton and Layla Decker earning hits. Madden Cobb and Sophia Wilmot scored runs along with Fenton and Comino.
Off for the rest of the week, Cazenovia hoped to get in one Tuesday against Jordan-Elbridge before the schedule really began to pick up in the last days of April.
