ONONDAGA COUNTY – For the first time in reccent memory a large-school Section III softball championship game does not involve Cicero-North Syracuse or Liverpool.
Both the Northstars and Warriors saw their seasons conclude at the expense of their most mutual of rivals, Baldwinsville, who first got past Liverpool 6-3 and then upended top seed C-NS 2-1 in the semifinals at Onondaga Community College.
Of the two, the defeat on the Northstars’ part was more surprising in that C-NS beat B’ville twice earlier in the month, though the 5-1 and 2-1 margins of those games suggested that the two sides were quite close.
Now they met for the sixth straight post-season dating back to 2019 and C-NS got the jump, Kiyara Bembry reaching base and then racing home on Mia Farone’s single.
Yet that was all Bees pitcher Mackenzie Southworth allowed. The Northstars only managed a pair of hits over the last six innings giving the Bees ample time to do something about its 1-0 deficit.
In the top of the third it was Julianna Gingrich with a single to tie it 1-1, and two innings later she drove in the go-ahead run, with Marissa McCloud and Katelyn Pearce scoring after they reached base with singles.
Though Bembry and fellow C-NS pitcher Mila Owens only gave up four hits, B’ville protected that one-run margin as Southworth worked her total to seven strikeouts and overcame seven walks to win it and set up a final against Rome Free Academy, who edged Fayetteville-Manlius 6-5 in the other semifinal.
When Liverpool faced B’ville it was trying to avenge a 4-3 defeat to the Bees late in April, and the Warriors got within three outs of doing so before it all fell apart in the seventh inning.
A run in the bottom of the second by Liverpool was answered by two Bees runs in the third, but over the game’s middle stages Lexi Goodfellow kept B’ville quiet.
Tying it in the fourth and then going in front 3-2 with a run in the fifth, the Warriors maintained that slim edge to the top of the seventh, only to see Goodfellow tagged for four runs in that frame, which Liverpool could not answer.
Goodfellow gave up 10 hits while striking out five as Maya Mills went four-for-four at the plate, earning an RBI. Erica Ryan also drove in a run as Goodfellow, at the plate, got two hits off Southworth. Jenna Martin and Frankie DeSantis led B’ville with two RBIs apiece, Southworth and McCloud each adding a pair of hits.
