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New Hartford, Notre Dame earn spots in Section III softball finals

jon rathbun, times telegram
·4 min read

SYRACUSE – After waiting an extra day to play their semifinal games, New Hartford’s Spartans and Utica’s surprising Notre Dame Jugglers will play again Wednesday in Section III’s softball finals.

Both Class A games were postponed early Saturday and New Hartford and Auburn won Sunday playoffs to set the matchup for Wednesday’s championship game at Carrier Park.

Notre Dame and West Canada Valley started their game Saturday and were suspended in the top of the first inning. The Jugglers won the game when it was completed Sunday afternoon at Onondaga Community College and will meet Sandy Creek Wednesday when they return to Syracuse.

More: Poland, Oriskany advance to play for Section III's Class D softball crown

Championships in classes B – Marcellus vs. Altmar-Parish Williamstown – and D – Poland vs. Oriskany – will be decided Tuesday. Liverpool and Baldwinsville will play for the Class AA title in Wednesday’s late game at Carrier Park’s two-field facility.

New Hartford Spartans CC Holmes and Taylor Raux (from left) hype each other up before an inning during Thursday's semifinal win over East Syracuse-Minoa. New Hartford won again Sunday and will play for Section III's Class A softball title Wednesday against Auburn.
New Hartford Spartans CC Holmes and Taylor Raux (from left) hype each other up before an inning during Thursday's semifinal win over East Syracuse-Minoa. New Hartford won again Sunday and will play for Section III's Class A softball title Wednesday against Auburn.

Class A

New Hartford ran its winning streak to seven games with Sunday’s 11-6 come-from-behind victory over top seed Jamesville-DeWitt.

“They’re just resilient,” New Hartford coach Dan Stalteri said of his fourth-seeded Spartans who scored twice in the seventh inning to beat Rome Free Academy in their regular season finale Tuesday and started their streak with a 2-1 walk off win over Whitesboro. “We’ve learned to play everything like it’s an even score.”

Jamesville-DeWitt (18-4) took a 4-0 lead in the second inning and led 6-1 entering the sixth when New Hartford broke through for a four-run inning of its own. The Spartans scored six more runs in the seventh and Sienna Holmes closed out the win with a scoreless bottom of the inning.

Stalteri said the turning points for his team were a pair of defensive plays. The Spartans threw out the trail runner on a double steal that led to a Jamesville-DeWitt run and ended that rally. Catcher Sophia Burynski retrieved a wild pitch and flipped the ball back to Holmes with a Jamesville-DeWitt runner trying to score the team’s seventh run.

“Classic dust-flying drama,” the coach said.

Freshman Taylor Scranton and sophomore Raven Gonzales each had three hits and scored two runs for New Hartford (15-4) which carries a seven-game winning streak into Wednesday’s final. Taylor Raux had two hits and scored twice, and Alex Volo also scored two runs and delivered a key hit during the sixth inning, one Stalteri said got the Spartans rolling.

“The girls just caught fire,” he said. “We were just on after that. The next thing we knew we were in the seventh inning, we had the lead and we just had to play for outs.”

The Spartans outhit Jamesville-DeWitt’s Red Rams 16-12.

No. 2 Auburn grabbed the other spot in the championship game by beating Camden 4-2.

The Class A games had been scheduled for Saturday at Baldwinsville High School.

Auburn (18-4) got three hits and two runs scored from Morgan Cook in its win over No. 3 Camden (17-4), the last team to have beaten New Hartford this spring.

Classes A and AA had been the only classes with the top four seeds filling the semifinal lineup. Class AA started with four teams.

Ella Trinkaus, pictured pitching at Herkimer's Mudville complex April 30, held West Canada Valley scoreless Sunday and helped Utica's Notre Dame Jugglers earn a spot in Section III's Class C softball championship game.
Ella Trinkaus, pictured pitching at Herkimer's Mudville complex April 30, held West Canada Valley scoreless Sunday and helped Utica's Notre Dame Jugglers earn a spot in Section III's Class C softball championship game.

Class C

The No. 17 seed scored 17 runs over two days and Notre Dame continued its unexpected postseason run with a 17-0 shutout of West Canada Valley’s Indians, seeded fourth. No. 3 Sandy Creek shut out No. 7 Pulaski 2-0 in the second semifinal and fourth game of the day on Onondaga’s turf.

Notre Dame (13-9) led 3-0 when the game was stopped in the top of the first inning and Saturday and 8-0 when that inning was completed Sunday. The Jugglers added three more runs in the second inning and Ella Trinkaus pitched her second playoff shutout.

Notre Dame, seeded at the bottom of a 17-team field to start the playoffs one week ago, won games at No. 16 Adirondack, No. 1 Port Byron and No. 9 Weedsport in a span of four days to get to the semifinals.

Maggie Trinkaus singled, tripled and drove in five runs against West Canada Valley, Erin Trinkaus scored three times, and Bella Roberts and Ella Trinkaus each contributed two hits and two runs scored.

West Canada Valley (17-3) had entered the game Saturday with 14 consecutive victories.

In the second Class C semifinal, Sandy Creek scored one run in the first inning and another in the fifth to win a pitching duel between Comet Kendall Darling and Pulaski Blue Devil Emily Birmingham.

Darling and Birmingham held each other’s teams to 10 combined hits.

Scout Preston and Julia Hollister each had two of those hits for the Comets (18-2) and Bailey Williams homered. Hollister scored the other run.

Sandy Creek has won 12 consecutive games since suffering both of its losses at an April 30 tournament at Mudville. Notre Dame won two games at that same tournament but the teams did not meet.

Pulaski finishes the season 14-4.

Jon Rathbun is a sportswriter for the Times Telegram. Email Jon at sports@timestelegram.com.

This article originally appeared on Times Telegram: New Hartford, Notre Dame earn spots in Section 3 softball finals