CLASS B AND C STATE SOFTBALL
Fredonia softball falls in final for third straight year
WATERLOO — The tears and the frustration on the faces of the Fredonia softball players on a rainy Saturday afternoon told the story.
The Hillbillies lost the biggest game of the year — again.
Normally strong-hitting Section II (Albany area) champion Mechanicville managed just three hits, but two of them were the mighty blows. It won another state championship while pinning runner-up status on Fredonia for the third time in as many years. The Raiders, last year’s Class C champions, captured the Class B crown with a 3-1 triumph before an estimated 250 at Waterloo High School.
The Hillbillies weren’t the only Section VI team to experience disappointment here. Randolph dropped a 5-2 decision to Section IV champion (Binghamton area) Tioga in the Class C semifinals.
Mechanicville (25-5-1) won its sixth title this decade by relying on timely hitting and the bulldog pitching of sophomore Anna Arceneaux (two strikeouts, one walk). Kelsey Hines hit an RBI double in the bottom of the fourth — her team’s first hit of the game—to break a scoreless tie. Alysa Russell added a two-run triple — her team’s second hit — with two outs in the fifth.
“It’s really rough,” said Fredonia’s senior shortstop T’ana Abt. “I can’t really explain it. It’s really hard to take.”
“It’s definitely emotional, especially since most of us have played together since we were 9,” said senior center fielder Mary Kate Bongiovanni, who drove in the Hillbillies’ lone run with a two-out triple in the seventh and finished 2 for 4.
Fredonia had its opportunities to end that drought. The Hillbillies finished with seven hits but stranded seven runners. They left the bases loaded in the fifth.
Arceneaux changed speeds effectively and kept the Hillbillies (25-5) off balance.
Fredonia had done a great job of getting hits with runners in scoring position in its previous three games, including Saturday morning’s 5-1 semifinal triumph over Chenango Valley, ending the Section IV champions’ 13-game winning streak.
Junior pitcher Marah Dahn earned the complete-game win in the semifinals, scattering three hits and striking out five. She held the Raiders to two hits in 4c innings but hit two batters (both scored) and walked two.
“We’re proud of the way we played but we just left things undone,” Abt said. “We knew we were expected to get this far. . . . We just didn’t pull through.”
Randolph, which has more freshmen and eighth graders (five) than seniors (three) on its roster, started quickly in its semifinal loss. The Cardinals scored twice in the top of the first when freshman Marah Maycock hit an RBI single and Lacy Blocker scored on a passed ball.
But Tioga (22-4), whose first final four appearance ended with a loss to Rhinebeck of Section IX (Dutchess County) in the final, pounded out six hits and scored four runs in the bottom of the inning with Hailey Hoffman, winning pitcher Sarah Wayson and Amanda Fama each hitting RBI singles. Randolph (23-2) finished with four hits, none after the third.
“We just had a bad inning and we couldn’t come back from it,” said Maycock, who hit .363 with 20 RBIs. “It was a great accomplishment [reaching the semifinals]. It was a great year.”
Log into MyBuffalo to post a comment
MyBuffalo is the new social network from Buffalo.com. Your MyBuffalo account lets you comment on and rate stories at buffalonews.com. You can also head over to mybuffalo.com to share your blog posts, stories, photos, and videos with the community. Join now or learn more.
Reader comments