STATES BOUND: Oriskany advances with regional Class D softball victory; New Hartford beaten
Two Mohawk Valley high school softball teams took the field Saturday with their seasons on the line in the Regional Final.
Only one, Oriskany, saw its season continue into states next weekend in Moriches on Long Island after beating Edwards-Knox.
The other, the New Hartford Spartans, fell to Troy and witnessed their season come to an end.
Here is a recap of both games.
Oriskany vs Edwards-Knox
POTSDAM – Oriskany scored early at SUNY-Potsdam and held on at the end to earn their spot in the state’s Class D softball Final Four next weekend.
Oriskany, champions of Section III, scored two runs in the first inning and two more in the second, and led 5-1 in the middle of the sixth on the way to a 5-4 victory over Section X Edwards-Knox.
“They couldn’t be playing any better,” Oriskany coach Mike Reilly said after the Redskins won their 13th consecutive game dating back to the start of May. “We’re hitting well, limiting our error, putting the ball in play, and making plays when we have to.”
More: Oriskany beats Poland, wins first sectional softball title since 2009
More: New Hartford Spartans capture Section III Class A softball title
More: Oriskany treks to Potsdam to face Edwards-Knox, while New Hartford hosts Troy in Syracuse
Oriskany put its speed and bunting skills on display after Juliet Tagliaferri led off the game with a double. Tagliaferri scored from second base when Jordyn Carlo bunted for a hit.
“That’s something we practice and they’re fast,” Reilly said of the Oriskany’s aggressive base-running. “I tell them all year they’re on their own most of the time.”
Carlo stole second base and advanced on a wild pitch before scoring on another bunt.
The first two Oriskany batters reached base to start the second inning, the second on an error on a bunt, and scored on additional bunts by Ashley Burnop and Tagliaferri.
Oriskany (18-3) tacked on a run in the fifth inning.
Tagliaferri struck out five batters and walked one while allowing six hits, five of them to two batters.
“She’s a gamer and she was great today,” Reilly said of his second-year varsity pitcher. Edwards-Knox hitters “weren’t able to string their hits together.”
An error got the sixth inning started for the Panthers (14-5) and they scored two runs. A two-out hit brought home the final run for Edwards-Knox before Tagliaferri retired the final batter on a fly ball to Megan Wright in left field and stranded a runner at first base to end the game.
Oriskany had beaten Poland by the same score in the Section III championship game Thursday. Poland scored its final run with two outs in the seventh inning of that game when a triple put the tying run at third base for the final out.
The Class D semifinals are scheduled for 11:15 a.m. at the Moriches Athletic Complex on June 11. Oriskany’s opponent will be Argyle, the Section II champion and a 7-6 regional winner Saturday over Bolton/Schroon Lake from Section VII. The other state semifinal pits Section IV Deposit/Hancock against Section V Scio/Friendship.
The D championship game is scheduled for 3:45 p.m.
New Hartford vs Troy
The game between New Hartford and Troy was still tight when Troy’s Olivia DeCitise approached the plate in the sixth inning.
With one swing, that all changed.
DeCitise, who is currently weighing Division I offers between softball and bowling, bombed a pitch over the center field wall. The long ball pushed the Flying Horses lead from 6-3 to 9-3 and effectively ended New Hartford’s season.
An inning and a half later, the Spartans’ season officially ended when Taylor Raux struck out swinging as the Horses flew into Carrier Park in Syracuse and moved onto the state semifinals.
Here are some takeaways:
Back-and-forth game through three
The Flying Horses of Troy, who entered ranked second in Class A in the state according to newyorksportswriters.org, scored two in the first two innings but failed to get anything going.
One run came off a wild pitch, and the other occurred on an RBI single from Ava Salvaggio, who was then thrown out trying to advance to second.
Before the bottom of the third, New Hartford coach Dan Stalteri gathered his team together.
He wanted to motivate the team since he said they came out a little flat after defeating Auburn Thursday to win the Class A Sectional Final.
“We have to remember, they are high school athletes, they aren’t adults,” he said. “That’s the life lesson. How are you going to get up the next day after a big high and do the job?”
His message seemed to work in that third inning.
Alex Volo shot a triple, which scored two and tied the game. Sienna Holmes, the next batter, brought home Volo on a sacrifice fly.
“They executed the adjustment,” Stalteri said. “When you are a coach, and you instruct your players and they execute it, that’s when you are the proudest.”
A costly fourth inning
New Hartford took the field with a new attitude and a lead in the fourth, but immediately ran into trouble maintaining it.
Two errors to begin the inning put runners on second and third for the Flying Horses after they had already scored a run to tie the game.
Casey Paul then changed the game open with one swing. She hit an RBI double, and after the throw to second arrived high, she rounded third and scored easily, pushing the New Hartford deficit to three.
Stalteri said the squad pressed in that inning.
“They are competitors, so I tried to calm them down,” he said. “When I went to the mound, there are five girls there, and they are breathing hard. I tried to get their heart rate down, so they wouldn’t think too much.”
Stalteri said that behavior could be credited to the strain of this time of year.
“The emotion side, we talked about it when we got off the bus that we have to turn the switch back on,” he said. “I could see, there was a definite energy level they couldn’t get back to.”
He said he could not blame them since Thursday’s win was emotional for all sides, including him.
After that three run third, DeCitise shut down the Spartans the rest of the way, not acquiescing another run.
“She’s got great tail on her pitches,” Stalteri said. “She’s got a screwball and a curveball. She could handle the left handers by moving it. She throws hard with that movement, that’s hard for anyone at any level.”
Stalteri thankful for season and seniors
Stalteri fought through tears when he talked about the seniors on his team after the game, some of whom left immediately after to attend prom.
“My heart is empty for Taylor Raux, if you guys could have the pleasure of coaching that fine young lady,” he said. “That’s the thing with a high school team. You have a senior class, and you get close to them. That’s the saddest thing about today for me.”
Stalteri said with the success the team earned this season, which included a sectional title for the first team in nearly 15 years, they end as winners.
He’s also confident they’ll return to this stage.
“I’m losing a couple of girls, but my core is still there,” he said. “We got girls coming through the system. We’ll be right here again next season.”
What’s Next
Troy will travel down to Moriches on Long Island for states. It’ll play an TBD opponent Saturday at 11:15 a.m.
Noah Ram is a sports reporter for the Observer-Dispatch. Email Noah Ram at nram@gannett.com.
Jon Rathbun is a sportswriter for the Times Telegram. Email Jon at sports@timestelegram.com.
This article originally appeared on Observer-Dispatch: Oriskany advances with regional Class D softball win; New Hartford beaten
