After going down by three in the first inning, Cohoes could not claw their way back in as they fell to Solvay (Section III) on Saturday in the Class B state semifinals on Saturday at Moreau Park by a final score of 5-2.
Solvay got their offense going early, batting around in the first inning and highlighted by three doubles, two of them back-to-back doubles off the bats of Lauren Nichols and Caitlin McCann to score two. Nadia Davis would rip the third double to get the third run off of Cohoes starter Isabelle DeChiaro, who had been dominant all season on both sides of the plate. DeChiaro threw a complete game but allowed five runs in the process.
“When they do hit Isabelle, we didn’t field them like we should have, but they’re a good hitting team,” Cohoes head coach Frank Ryan said.
The offense of Cohoes was also kept in check for the majority of the afternoon due to the dominance of Nichols on the pitcher’s circle, as she held Cohoes to just two hits and didn’t allow one until the sixth inning, reaching six outs to go in her bid for a no-hitter. Cohoes did have three runners get on base that inning and scored two on a single from Lily Sencer followed by an RBI double from Haleigh Burgess after DeChiaro walked to start the inning, but it was not nearly enough to make it a close game. Nichols would finish the game with 10 strikeouts and walked just three.
Solvay picked up their last two runs of the day in the third and fifth innings off base hits from Aleah Yaizzo and Maya Martineau to make it 5-0 after both of those runs had scored.
Ryan said of his team’s resiliency in the playoffs despite having just 10 players, “That’s what I told them, I’m proud of what they did to get here, final four, four teams left in New York state.”
Cohoes’ season ends following the loss. Solvay went on to win the Class B state championship later Saturday by beating Section VI’s Depew 1-0 to finish their season at 23-0.
