Oriskany falls in final; Deposit/Hancock sweeps Class D softball, baseball

MORICHES – There would be no comeback in the season’s final game.

Oriskany, the Section III team that had come from behind to beat Section II Argyle 8-3 in the New York State Public High School Athletics Association’s Class D semifinal earlier in the day at Moriches Athletic Complex, fell behind again and could not catch up Saturday against Section IV Deposit/Hancock in the championship game.

An 8-1 victory allowed Deposit to repeat the title it had won when the tournament was last contested in 2019 in South Glens Falls. The state championship is the seventh for Deposit and its first as a program combined with Hancock which had not previously won a title.

“We ran into a good pitcher here,” Oriskany coach Mike Reilly said. “We didn’t really hit her at all.”

The Redskins paired two hits against junior Kaitlyn Macumber and scored in a run in the sixth inning but had already fallen behind 8-0. Megan Wight singled, stole a base and scored on a hit by Aolani Roberts.

Macumber held Oriskany to three hits in total while walking two batters and striking out eight. She also hit a three-run home run in the third inning after starting the two-run second with a triple.

Deposit/Hancock’s Eagles, 7-2 semifinal winners over Section V Scio/Friendship in the other semifinal, scored one run and left the bases loaded in the first inning of the championship games. The lead was 7-0 after three innings and the Eagles (17-6) tacked on their eighth run in the fourth.

“We stayed in it as much as we could,” said Reilly whose team had won 14 consecutive games. “We fought to the end.”

The Final Four appearance was a first for Oriskany which graduates three seniors, two of whom were freshman on the 2019 team that advanced to the sectional finals.

“They went out on a high note,” Reilly said Jordyn Carlo, Ashley Reid and Ashley Burnop. “They were a great group of seniors.”

Looking forward, the Redskins return eight players from a 19-4 season that saw them share a Center State Conference division title with West Canada Valley and earn a No. 2 playoff seed on the way to the program’s first sectional title since 2009.

“We have a great core returning,” said Reilly who has seven players with starting experience coming back, including Juliet Tagliaferri who will be back for a third year in the pitching circle, and Kaylen Buehler behind the plate where she took over as a sophomore this spring.

Elsewhere Saturday, the Deposit/Hancock baseball team defeated Chapel Field Catholic 14-5 in Binghamton to give the program a softball/baseball state championship double for the spring.

More: One down, one to go for Oriskany in state softball playoffs

More: Game time: Oriskany heads to Long Island for Final Four play in softball

Semifinals

The Redskins scored seven runs in the fourth inning against Argyle, erasing an early 3-0 deficit on the way to an 8-3 victory in their semifinal in the middle of day Saturday.

Tagliaferri shut down the Scots (10-7) for the final four innings and kept the Redskins in position to come back. Buehler drove the first two Oriskany runs home with a triple, the tying run came home on a bases-loaded walk ahead of a Reid single and Wright’s bases-clearing triple.

The other semifinal followed a similar script. Deposit/Hancock broke a 2-2 tie in the fifth inning and defeated Section V Scio/Friendship 7-2. The Eagles scored three runs in the fifth and added two in the sixth.

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

This article originally appeared on Times Telegram: Oriskany falls to Deposit/Hancock in state Class D softball final