By CHRIS BROOKS, managing editor, wellsvillesports.com
FILLMORE — It was a back-and-forth dead heat between two of Class D’s top squads battling for position at the top of the pyramid on Tuesday, as Arkport-Canaseraga and Fillmore came together for their first clash since last season’s epic and incredible eight-inning Semi Final war that sent the Eagles to the Championship.
It was a day that the Wolves had not stopped thinking about, entering the battlefield with redemption very much on the back of their minds.
The two foes delivered some constant swings in the beginning stages, but behind the guidance of their ace in the hole on the mound, one team managed to break free.
Micah Marvin would help deliver that devastating haymaker.
With a 1-1 deadlock being shattered off a pair of Fillmore errors in their third inning tenure of defense, the Wolves capitalized on the opportunity and worked their way out front, never looking back on their advantage in the same stride. Under the command of Marvin, the Arkport-Canaseraga hurler kept the Eagles at bay all game long in return, fanning 11 and walking two across six brilliant innings of work to help solidify a redeeming 8-3 road win.
Fillmore (6-4) was put on edge early by the Wolves out of the gate with runners occupying both corner bags, as they aimed to strike gold off a double steal. With a throw to the glove of Jude Beardsley at second, the Eagles senior would remain calm, cool and collected to force the Arkport-Canaseraga runner back to first base before throwing the ball back to home for Nolan Krzeminski and his tag to be applied on the lead runner, for the out.
Momentum off that enormous sequence was established by the hosts in green and white, becoming the first team to get on the board. After chopping a two-out single to Caden Carey at shortstop, Krzeminski used his speed to beat out the play to become Fillmore’s first runner on.
On the next at-bat, he would come all the way around to score off Damon Potter’s bomb to the deepest part of the field in straight away center field that would sit down in front of the fence.
He would break the ice after arriving to second on a stand-up double.
In the second inning, the Wolves would display another big threat on the corners, looking to double steal on the Eagles once more. Just like the previous time, the hosts were able to work their way out of it with a throw from Krzeminski to second where it was cut off by James Hillman, later forcing the runner back to first before firing it over to Wade DeRock at third to record the out, catching the lead runner again to keep the offense at a standstill.
But Arkport-Canaseraga would manage to provide some benefit of the doubt to close out the top of the third inning after shutting the Eagles offense down in the previous half-stanza behind a fanning of the side from Micah Marvin, as they posted four gigantic runs — all off a pair of Fillmore errors on defense, two in each sequence, to jump ahead with a 5-1 lead.
The Wolves would continue to hang onto the lead from that point forward, scoring three of the contest’s last five runs — all of which were pinpointed in the fifth and sixth innings in clutch fashion, keeping Fillmore in the rearview mirror once and for all.
At the plate, the Eagles collected three runs off just five hits, with Hillman’s 2-for-4 outing paving the way. Nolan Krzeminski and Jack Boon each had a hit to pitch in.
On the mound, Brayden Hennard fanned four and walked two during his tenure of relief.
To go with his phenomenal performance on the rubber, Marvin was also Arkport-Canaseraga’s main go-getter at the plate, going 4-for-4 with a pair of doubles and two runs scored. Tayven Lavetsky chipped in with a pair of RBI while Ben Leibham had a double.
Fillmore is back at the Town Park tonight with a 5 p.m. contest against the Cuba-Rushford Rebels.
Arkport-Canaseraga 014 012 0 – 8 9 3
Fillmore 101 001 0 – 3 5 5
A-C – Micah Marvin (WP) (11K, 2BB), Bryer Drake (7) (2K) and Drake, Jacob Bacon (7).
FIL – Kalen Beardsley (LP) (2K, BB), Brayden Hennard (3) (4K, 2BB), Wade DeRock (6) (2K), Isaac Wilcox (7) (2K, 2BB) and Nolan Krzeminski.
More stories after Chris Brooks photo gallery:
Andover/Whitesville 20, Friendship/Scio 6 (F-5)
SCIO — After getting their wheels turning at the plate, Andover/Whitesville then kicked it into the highest of gears by accounting for a massive 12-run top of the fourth inning that ultimately pushed their five-run lead in insurmountable fashion, as they floored it straight past host Friendship/Scio on Tuesday with a 20-6 victory in five innings, in Scio.
The bats were clicking following the exchange of a scoreless first inning between both teams, as Andover/Whitesville (2-7) went on to score seven straight runs to break the ice against the hosts in black and gold, including a five-run top of the third.
After Friendship/Scio responded by cutting their deficit down to three in the bottom half, the visitors in purple changed gears for good, going on a 12-run bonanza to pull away and out of reach to secure the win.
Andover/Whitesville totaled 20 runs off 13 hits on the attack, with Brody Vance and Rogan Perkins each leading the way with three hits, with Vance scoring two runs. On the mound, the win belonged to Derek Perkins, who went into the fourth inning behind six strikeouts and seven walks.
As for Friendship/Scio, Tyler Nickerson went 2-for-2 with a pair of RBI, while Cooper Greenman also pitched in two hits and scored two runs of his own. On the mound, Aiden Golden handed out two strikeouts and walked two during his inning of relief.
Both teams are back on the diamond Thursday night, with Andover/Whitesville returning home to host a 6 p.m. first pitch in Andover against scorching hot Bolivar-Richburg, while Friendship/Scio hits the road for a 5 p.m. stop to Cuba-Rushford.
Andover/Whitesville 025 (12)1 – 20 13 2
Friendship/Scio 002 4 0 – 6 8 7
A/W – Derek Perkins (WP) (6K, 7BB), Vinny Joyce (4) (4K, 3BB) and Colton Calladine.
F/S – Nick Sortore (LP) (5K, 15BB), Aiden Golden (4) (2K, 2BB), Deacon Brown (5) (K) and Cooper Greenman.
Alfred-Almond 8, Hinsdale 7
HINSDALE — It was a close affair from start to finish between both Alfred-Almond and host Hinsdale after beating out the impending rain. But when the final chapter of their Tuesday story closed up, the Eagles would remain the lone survivor in the winner’s circle, as they came away with a narrow 8-7 edge of the Bobcats.
Stats and a complete box score were not made available to report upon publication.
The Bobcats (1-6) will do battle again on Friday in Scio, as they get set to face host Friendship/Scio in doubleheader action beginning at 5 p.m.
SOFTBALL
Wellsville 9, Penn Yan 0
PENN YAN — The GPS was set for a collision course between the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in Class B, Tuesday night, with the Sectional Playoffs beginning to come into view just a mere three weeks away. The Lady Lions of Wellsville have maintained their seat at the high table during their journey to go back to where they left off from a year ago.
The team chasing them in the rearview mirror was current No. 2 in the class: The Penn Yan Lady Mustangs, who were looking to apply all the pressure they could to extinguish a red hot Lady Lions team that has won 10 straight contests.
Although the bus ride up north near the Finger Lakes was a long one to endure, the Lady Lions would make it all worthwhile behind a fast start in their first at-bats, along with another sublime performance from both Makenna Dunbar and Makenzie Cowburn in the circle, as the two hurlers converged to shell out a one-hit blank of the Lady Mustangs to set the record straight on what was a 9-0 victory to maintain their seat on the Class B throne.
“Penn Yan is No. 2 right behind us in Class B, and their pitcher kept us off-balanced for the most part, but we were still smacking the ball around,” said Lady Lions co-coach Shelley Chaffee. “They made four or five great defensive plays and then the girls really continued to hit the ball to keep the score where it was. The weather was difficult at times throughout the game, the pitchers found it a little difficult to really grip onto the ball, but they were able to control the strike-zone no matter what was being thrown at them.”
Wellsville (11-1) made their immediate impact right in the first inning of play, igniting the bats with two big strikes to go with some special teams play around the bases. Amongst the early punctuations was an enormous smack of the boomstick by Natalie Adams, who struck gold with the bases loaded behind the Penn Yan defense on a two-run single to get the scoring started. Marissa Ordway would follow behind with an RBI single of her own along the way.
With a 5-0 advantage in their possession, the Lady Lions would now look to their pitching staff to aid them every way they could.
Behind the duel threat of Dunbar and Cowburn in the circle, the Wellsville aces brewed up a 14-strikeout combination that Penn Yan could not overcome, as they held the Lady Mustangs to just a single hit while adding to their lead in three of the next five innings of framework.
In total, the Lady Lions produced nine runs off 12 hits at the assembly line, with Brazen Beckwith and her perfect 3-for-3 outing at the plate leading the charge, as she posted a triple and double in the midst of her hitting spree.
Following up were both Lindsay Stuck and Averee Palmatier, each chipping in two hits.
Dunbar was credited with the win in her four-inning start on the mound, handing out eight chairs and walking six before Cowburn came on in relief to record six more strikeouts of her own to go with a pair of walks.
The Lady Lions are now off until next Wednesday night, when they hit the road once again for a 5 p.m. visit to the Addison Lady Knights.
Wellsville 510 102 0 – 9 12 1
Penn Yan 000 000 0 – 0 1 4
WLSV – Makenna Dunbar (WP) (8K, 6BB), Makenzie Cowburn (5) (6K, 2BB) and Lindsay Stuck.
PY – Gianna Ficcaglia (LP) (CG, 8K, 4BB) and Hailey Trank.
Lady Eagles springboard to .500 with twinbill sweep of Ark-Can
FILLMORE — With rain clouds surrounding the area just off to the south of Fillmore, there was softball to be had on Tuesday. Not just one game, but two against the incoming Arkport-Canaseraga Lady Wolves, where the two contests on the turf saw a little bit of everything across all phases of the game.
Strong pitching, the bats electrifying the plate and even a back-and forth exchange right down to the wire to close out the festivities.
But the result in both games would pan out in identical fashion, both belonging to the host Lady Eagles, who used a phenomenal game one start to set the tone and then survived a late threat from the Lady Wolves in game two to score the twinbill sweep by 11-1 and 10-8 counts to get back to .500 on the campaign.
“A couple of our goals were to improve each night out and to tally more wins than last year. At this point, both of those are a success,” Lady Eagles coach Jon Beardsley said. “We were able to squeeze in a doubleheader today and we had some solid contact up and down the lineup to create a lot of runs off good base-running and hitting behind the lead runners. Mylee pitched 11 innings and battled as long as she could, and really did a nice job behind good defense. Emalyn Mucher, a seventh grader, came in with the bases loaded in the fifth and helped turn a double play to end the game. Oakley had a great 14 innings of plate to help our pitchers out, she really kept everything in front of her.”
To start game one, the Lady Eagles (7-7) were on the button early, as they docked eight of their 11 runs all in the first three innings of play. Of those runs, five of them came from within the bottom of the first inning that allowed them to set the tone immediately against the Lady Wolves, cementing it with some additional brickwork in the innings ahead.
In the second frame, they added another piece to the foundation with Mattie McCumiskey keeping the bats red hot with a solo homer to extend their lead to 7-0 over the Lady Wolves marching forward. Arkport-Canaseraga was able to find their way onto the board however to spoil Mylee Miller’s phenomenal complete game, as they ended the shutout drought in the top of the fifth inning behind Mattie Kellogg’s RBI to cut their deficit to 8-1.
But the lone run would be all the Lady Wolves mustered, as Fillmore closed out the game with the last three runs to eclipse double-figures in the driver’s seat. In all, the Lady Eagles recorded 11 runs off eight hits at the plate to propel their attack.
Miller held Arkport-Canaseraga to five hits to record the win, fanning seven and walking three. At the plate, Tenlee Miller recorded a triple and RBI to further the offensive cause. Oakley Frazier chipped in with a double and drove a run in, while Preslee Miller had two more RBI.
To close out the evening, a very close encounter between the two squads would develop from start to finish, as both Fillmore and Arkport-Canaseraga keyed on a fast start in the first three innings that saw the team in black and green claim a one-run lead.
But heading down the homestretch, the rest of the game was Fillmore’s to control, as they wound up scoring five of the last eight runs in the game to pull away from the Lady Wolves with their 10-8.
The largest lead garnered by either side was six runs, that being held by Fillmore after they posted a 5-4 lead of Arkport-Canaseraga through the first three innings of play. The offense would resume striking the hot iron while it remained hot on the anvil, as they went on to score the next five unanswered runs to push their advantage out even further heading into the final sequences.
Arkport-Canaseraga did their best to remain within reach of the Lady Eagles each step of the way, as they accounted for a run in each of the last three innings of play to inch closer.
But despite trimming the deficit to a pair of runs, it would not be enough to overcome, as Fillmore eclipsed their win total from a year ago with a complete sweep of both games.
Fillmore’s offense collected 10 runs off 10 hits, with a 3-for-4 outing from Kylee Ellsworth leading the way, as she recorded two RBI along the way. Mylee Miller chipped in with a double and drove a run in, while Preslee Miller also had a double to add.
On the mound, Miller garnered her second win of the night across her four-inning start, fanning two and walking six.
Arkport-Canaseraga was led by Gracen Mahaney in relief of Grace Groves, as she struck out seven Lady Eagles batters and walked just two in the final three innings of play to keep them off the board.
On offense, Summer Marcus went 3-for-3 with a double and three RBI.
The Lady Eagles are now off until Monday night with a 5 p.m. visit from Genesee Valley/Belfast.
Game 1
Arkport-Canaseraga 000 010 0 – 1 5 4
Fillmore 521 021 X – 11 8 1
A-C – Grace Groves (LP) (5K, BB), Gracen Mahaney (5) (BB) and Kate Merry.
FIL – Mylee Miller (WP) (CG, 7K, 3BB) and Oakley Frazier.
Game 2
Fillmore 203 230 0 – 10 10 3
Arkport-Canaseraga 301 011 1 – 8 7 6
FIL – Mylee Miller (WP) (2K, 6BB), Emalyn Mucher (5) (4BB) and Oakley Frazier.
A-C – Grace Groves (LP) (4K), Gracen Mahaney (5) (7K, 2BB) and Kate Merry.
