Jordan Lucas delivered a type of velocity Wilson hadn’t seen before. But with the championship for the Section VI Class B title on the line, the Lakewomen tried to be prepared for her, even though it was hard to emulate in practice.
By throwing over 60 mph, the St. Bonaventure commit worked the inside corner of the plate and mixing in a curveball or riseball to retire Wilson with ease. Lucas threw a no-hitter and struck out 11 batters to lift Fredonia to a 12-0 win over the Lakewomen Wednesday in Gowanda.
Wilson still managed to reach base three times against Lucas, but couldn’t provide enough damage like it had in its three previous postseason games.
“She puts the ball where she wants it,” Wilson head coach Dan Lucinski said. “And then when she wants to spin it off of her velocity, it makes it tough for hitters in the box. … Her fastball is where she works off of and then she would have her drop and it looked like she had her curveball today, too, which helped her and then her changeup was there. She threw four pitches that hurt us altogether there.”
Wilson compounded struggles at the plate with uncharacteristic miscues in the field, committing four errors, its most since committing five in a win against Akron on April 29.
After averaging 1.8 errors per game following an early-April five-game road trip in Myrtle Beach, Wilson’s mistakes in the field came from the start against Fredonia, which averaged 6.7 runs per game. In the first, already with one runner on base, Lucas’ pop fly hit the glove of Wilson junior Aleena Adamczyk, and a single by Jaelyn Davis on the next pitch loaded the bases for the Hillbillies.
Fredonia took advantage as eighth-grader Jenna Fryberger sent a flyball over the centerfield wall for a grand slam for a 4-0 lead. Lucas then reached on error in the following inning as another pop-up went off of the glove of Peyton McInnis in right field to extend Fredonia’s lead to 6-0.
Trailing 8-0 going to the fifth, Wilson made two more errors as Bella Buckley’s pop fly dropped by Rowan Simpson at second base turned into a two-run double by Danielle Palisin two batters later. Another pop fly error by McInnis in Lucas’ at-bat nine pitches later allowed Natalie Muck to score.
Fredonia closed the game with a pop out and back-to-back walks, with Palisin scoring the 12th and final run to enforce the mercy rule. Robinson threw strikeouts but walked seven and allowed nine with only seven earned runs in 4 innings, but facing eight or more batters three times extended the contest.
“When you had a ball that should be caught and doesn’t get caught or a play isn’t made, you got to make those pitches again,” Lucinski said. “They’re much tougher against a good lineup when that happens. You can’t compile those things.”
Entering the contest, Wilson averaged 5.5 runs per game and had outscored JFK, Portville and Falconer 20-6 to reach Wednesday’s final. But against Lucas, who only allowed five runs all season, the Lakewomen couldn’t figure out how to work against her inside curveball.
Senior Rian Faery reached base in the first after being hit-by-pitch in the first but was then left on base following younger sister Abbie’s strikeout and a fly out from Ava Mielke. Then, in the fourth, Abbie, drew a one-out walk and Adamczyk reached base on an infield error in the fourth.
But, to Rian, what Wilson saw from Lucas in the circle was similar to the speed they faced in Myrtle Beach.
“A lot of us saw inside curveball, which we haven’t seen, but that’s the pitch that hit me,” Rian said. “But then later on, (Lucas) started to hit the spot and then she got to a couple people with a riseball, which we didn’t really see in the season. So, I think those were the two pitches that were really good for her.”
With the win, Fredonia (21-0) plays Section V’s Wellsville in the Class B Far West Regional at 10 a.m. June 1 at Webster Schroeder in Rochester.
Wilson finished the season with a 13-10 record.