State Softball: Raiders shut out in semis

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It wasn’t so much that Mechanicville lost in Saturday’s state softball Class B semifinal.

It was the way the Lady Raiders dropped a 2-0 decision to Solvay that hurt most as their season came to an end at Moreau Rec.

Mechanicville (20-5) saw its 11-game winning streak end when Bearcats junior Jackie Gardner held the Section II champions to three hits, two by leadoff hitter Devon Scott.

“We didn’t hit. That’s what it came down to,” said Mechanicville coach Don Arceneaux, who has coached the program to half of its six state titles. “If somebody would have told me that that team was only going to score two runs, I would have said `We’re winning the ballgame.’ ”

Mechanicville pitcher Kirstyn Alonzo was as surprised as Arceneaux that her team never did figure Gardner out. She was prepared for a higher scoring game, figuring that her teammates would more than make up any runs she would surrender.

“Nobody was getting on top of the ball,” said Alonzo, who gave up five hits and a pair of unearned runs in her final high school game. “We were swinging at bad pitches. We were aggressive, but we were too aggressive, especially in the beginning.”

Alonzo retired the first seven Bearcats before Jordan Micheletti doubled off the left-field fence, the first of her three hits. She took third on a passed ball, and scored on a wild pitch.

Gardner got the first nine hitters in order before Scott dropped a hit in front of second baseman Nicole Antonacci.

Erin Maloney ripped a one-out single off the Solvay third baseman’s glove, but Garnder got Kim Thompson to hit into a forceout and retired catcher Kali DeMarco on a popout.

Solvay added a run in the sixth, with Mechanicville helping by committing a pair of errors.

“We handed them to them,” Arceneaux of Solvay’s runs. “We still needed to score, though.”

Scott tried to do that in the home sixth. She hit a one-out single, and with two outs, took off when Gardner uncorked a wild pitch.

The 10th-grader tried to get all the way to third, but was cut down.

Arceneaux, in the third-base coaches’ box, was the most surprised person on the field to see Scott trying to get an extra base.

“We had a talk about that. Devon was a little overaggressive,” said Arceneaux. “I love them when they’re overaggressive. It just was the wrong time, with Erin Maloney, our home run hitter up.

“I didn’t even know she was coming until I saw their catcher throwing the ball.”

Gardner only struck out five, one after the third inning, but kept the ball away from the sweet spot on the Mechanicville bats.

When the Lady Raiders did put the ball in play, the Solvay defense made some extraordinary plays. Micheletti robbed Amandz Kenyon of a leadoff hit in the fifth, and third baseman Molly McGuire made a diving catch to end the inning.

Catcher Sydney Cimini got into the act with a terrific catch of a foul ball for the first out in the sixth.

“They made like four diving catches,” said Arceneaux. “Some of them were in the infield, but they robbed us of a hit out in left.”

“They made some good plays, but we’re such a better hitting team than that,” said Alonzo.

“I thought we would hit better than we did,” said first baseman and cleanup hitter Kim Thompson, one of the three seniors in the Mechanicville lineup. “We got robbed a couple of times. We got jammed, and hit it off the end of the bat a lot, too,

“I know that we can hit. That was the most surprising thing,” said Alonzo.

Arceneaux felt Alonzo turned in one of her better games,

“Hats off to my pitcher. She pitched great,” he said. “That’s a good hitting team. She kept them down. We just didn’t score any runs. That’s the way it goes.

“When you come here, you’ve got to hit. If you don’t, you’re going home early.”

Solvay lost in the final, 1-0, in eight innings, as Eden’s Jill Murray threw a no-hitter.

Fort Ann won its second straight Class D title, rallying past Deposit, 7-5, in the semis on two-run hits in the sixth by winning pitcher Molly Bailey and Kaleigh Foran, then beating Heuvelton, 8-2.

Troy fell in the Class A semis, wasting a 6-2 lead in a 7-6 loss to Williamsville South.

Greenwich fell to Rochester Edison Tech, 6-2, in the Class C final. Rachel Hall threw a two-hitter in the Witches’ 9-1 semifinal victory.

CLASS B

Semifinal

SOLVAY 2, MECHANICVILLE 0

Solvay 001 001 0 — 2 5 0

Mechanicville 000 000 0 — 0 3 3

Gardner and Cimini; Alonzo and DeMarco.

CLASS A

Semifinal

WILLIAMSVILLE SOUTH 7, TROY 6

Troy 222 000 0 — 6

Williamsville South 201 210 1 — 7

CLASS C

Semifinal

GREENWICH 9,

PIERSON/BRIDGEHAMPTON 1

Pierson 000 001 0 — 1

Greenwich 032 013 x — 9

Duchema and Rome; Hall and Sam Whitehouse.

Championship

EDISON TECH 6, GREENWICH 2

Greenwich 100 001 0 — 2

Edison 320 001 x — 6

CLASS D

Semifinal

FORT ANN 7, DEPOSIT 5

Fort Ann 001 004 2 — 7

Deposit 010 300 1 — 5

Bailey and Amodio; Cook and Petterson.

Championship

FORT ANN 8, HEUVELTON 2

Heuvelton 001 001 0 — 2

Fort Ann 002 141 x — 8

McCormick and Thornhill; Bailey and Amodio.

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Categories: High School Sports