It was a triple header of action at the Kenmore West Athletic Complex Monday afternoon.
When the dust settled it was Niagara-Wheatfield baseball, Kenmore East softball and Ken-East tennis that walked away as winners.
Baseball (NW 4 – KW 0)
Ethan Guthrie delivered a two-run home run in the fifth as Niagara-Wheatfield beat Ken-West, 4-0.
“I had a pretty good feeling about it,” Guthrie said.
“I wouldn’t say it was a no-doubter, but I had a good feeling about it.”
The loss evened the score for the Falcons who fell to Ken-West 3-0 on April 21.
While Guthrie provided the pop it was pitcher Tommy Peltier who dazzled on the hill.
Peltier went the distance as he struck out seven and retired the first 10 batters he faced
“I was spotting my fastball good today and mixing when I could,” Peltier said. “But mostly I was pouring the zone with fastballs and making my defense work.”
Peltier said that the fact he had complete faith in his defense to make the plays meant he could pitch relaxed and not feel like he had to single-handedly now down every batter he faced.
“Exactly. I know I’ve got a good defense behind me,” he said. “Just put the ball in play and good things happen.”
Softball (KE 18 – NT 8)
Lexi Lagattuta’s grand slam, the first one hit at the new turf field at Ken-West, highlighted the second inning as the Lady Bulldogs exploded for 14 runs.
Lagattuta opened the scoring with a two-run double in the first inning.
Winning pitcher Gabi Vasi struck out five and was 5-for-5 at the plate.
Ken-East posted an 18-8 win over North Tonawanda the last time the two clubs met last Tuesday.
“We finally got the confidence that we can hit,” said Vasi. “I feel like once you have that mindset you have that I can do it kind of thinking.”
Even though the win last week was a tremendous boost for the Lady Bulldogs confidence, they knew they couldn’t take the Ladyjacks lightly this time around. They kept taking quality at-bats, played good defense and didn’t give the Jacks that window of opportunity to crawl back into the game.
Kaylee Haner had a homerun for NT. Haner, Laney Wieclaw and Laykin Brennan all scored twice for NT
Tennis: (KE 3 – KW 2)
The Bulldogs swept their season series against Ken-West with a 3-2 win over the Blue Devils.
Ken-East scores wins at second singles with Josh Fernando and at both doubles. Jeremy Rich and Jack Kaczmarowski won second doubles. While the team of Harper Lake and Connor Donnellon won first doubles.
For Donnellon, the Bulldogs lone senior, it meant the world to walk off the court with a win over their rival.
“It feels pretty good,” Donnellon said. “Basically when I was an underclassman we couldn’t do it. A lot of our troubles came from first and second doubles. Being able to put three away on them means the world.”
The Blue Devils got wins at first singles when John D’Aquino beat Aiden Root. And from Jack Cotter who won third singles after Owen Lake was unable to finish the match after he suffered what appeared to be an ankle injury.
