EAST SYRACUSE – With its main rivals cast aside the Baldwinsville softball team appeared ready to snare the programs’ second Section III championship in three years.
Yet it all got stopped in Sunday’s sectional Class AAA final at Carrier Park where Rome Free Academy ended its own long wait for a title by defeating the Bees 7-1.
From its no. 5 seed to start the sectional tournament and a 6-9 regular-season record B’ville had already upended defending champion Liverpool and then top seed Cicero-North Syracuse in the semifinals avenging two regular-season losses to the Northstars.
Meanwhile, RFA had a far better record of 13-6 but had to rally late to edge Fayetteville-Manlius 6-5 in the other sectional semifinal. What’s more, the Black Knights had not won a sectional title since 1987.
Even the experience factor in the pitcher’s circle appeared in B’ville’s favor as it had a junior, Mackenzie Southworth, going up against RFA freshman Emilia Szymanski.
Yet Szymanski proved herself quite ready for this big stage, blanking the Bees’ potent lineup in the first three inning and then triggering the rally that put her team in front for good.
Leading off in the bottom of the third, Szymanski singled off Southworth, who then retired the next two batters but then walked Alexa Thompson.
More than anything else, that walk turned the game around because Madison Safin came to the plate and doubled, scoring two runs. Moments later, Haylee Bostwick drilled a Southworth pitch over the fence.
Two pitches had put the Bees in a 4-0 deficit, and the margin stretched out further in the fifth when Safin and Bostwick both drive in runs after Thompson did so.
Pitching until the seventh, Szymanski struck out five and only gave up five hits, with B’ville’s lone run coming in the sixth when Marissa McCloud doubled and scored. Sophia Iglesias-Tosti worked the last inning in relief for RFA.
McCloud and Aleena Giarusso each had two hits for B’ville, the other going to Hannah Simmons. McCloud, Julianna Gingrich, Katelyn Pearce, Ella Amato and Frankie DeSantis will graduate, but Southworth, Giarusso, Simmons and Jenna Martin lead the returning cast for 2026.
