Riders win 6th title in 7 years
Ichabod Crane rolls past Glens Falls in Section II championship contest
The back of the Ichabod Crane softball teams’ T-shirts read “Wreck Everyone and Leave.” But, to quote Muhammad Ali, “It ain’t bragging if you can do it.”
And, the Riders certainly “can do it.”
Ichabod Crane won its sixth sectional championship in seven tries Thursday, pounding its way to an overwhelming 12-0 five-inning mercy-rule victory over Glens Falls in the Class B title game at Luther Forest. Ichabod Crane will be back at Luther Forest next Thursday to face Section VII champion Peru in the first round of the state championships.
Just how dominant is this Ichabod Crane team? Consider:
The Riders have won 39 consecutive games and last lost in the 2019 State Final Four.
The Riders have outscored their 2022 opponents by a 356-10 margin.
In the past four years, the Riders have an 82-3 record, including one state championship and a Final Four appearance.
In the past seven years, the Riders have a 143-12 record, including a second state championship and still another Final Four appearance.
Does success ever get old for Ichabod Crane coach Tracy Nytransky?
“No, it never does,” she said with a laugh, still wet after her team doused her with a postgame water bottle celebration. But she added, “We were a little nervous this year since we haven’t been at this stage since 2019.” The 2020 season was canceled by COVID and the 2021 season was limited to sectional play due to the pandemic.
Against Glens Falls, it was difficult to see Ichabod Crane as anything but another state championship contender. Ichabod Crane pounded out 16 hits in less than five innings of play, with eight of the nine Riders collecting hits.
Ava Heffner paced Ichabod Crane with a home run, double and single, driving in three runs. Clare Knapp also hit a home run, Abbey Milazzo had a double, two singles and three RBIS; and Carolina Williams and Emma Scheitinger each drove in a pair of runs. Even Emma Heartquist, batting in the No. 8 position, went 3-for-3, with a double and two singles.
While Ichabod Crane scored in every inning, Riders pitcher Kari Graziano retired the first 14 Glens Falls hitters, only to see her perfect
game attempt end with a single by Izzy Johnson in the top of the fifth inning. Graziano struck out five and the Indians managed, other than Johnson’s single, to get just one ball out of the infield.
Ichabod Crane scored twice in the first inning, once in the second inning, and twice in the third inning before breaking open the game with four runs in the fourth inning and three more in the mercy-rule shortened fifth inning.
In the first inning, Williams and Scheitinger smacked singles for the Riders and then came home on Heffner’s double. An inning later, Heartquist singled and scored on Milazzo’s double off the left-field wall.
In the third, Knapp, after fouling off seven pitches, crashed a home run over the left-field fence and, one pitch later, Heffner hit a home run to center field. An inning later, Williams’ double drove in two runs after Heartquist and Milazzo singled, and Scheitinger brought Williams home with a single; after a single by Heffner, Scheitinger came around to score on an infield hit by Makayla Walsh. To close out the game, in the fifth inning, a double by Heartquist and singles by Morgan Ormerod and Milazzo scored two runs, and Scheitinger’s sacrifice fly plated the Riders’ final run.
Should Ichabod Crane defeat Peru in the first round of the state playoffs, the Riders would next face Section X champion Canton on June 4 at SUNY Potsdam.