By MIKE ROSE
Canandaigua, NY — A rainout Saturday did nothing to dampen the high-powered Fairport offense. The Red Raiders jumped out to an early lead and never looked back as they cruised to the Class AAA title with a 16-3 win over the Greece Storm.
“Going into this year the goal was to win a sectional and go as far as we can,” Fairport head coach Curt Johnson said. “Did we not expect to be here and win, no, because that’s been our goal and we knew this was a very good team. You gotta play every game and once you get to elimination you can’t make mistakes.”
The Red Raiders left no doubt Sunday. They finished the game with 17 hits and eclipsed double-digit runs for the eighth time this season. Johnson knew his team’s offense would be dangerous early on.
“Winter hitting we go to a facility and hit and you compare the previous year’s team to the new team and we recognized quickly that we had a very good hitting team,” Johnson said. “We kept 20 players so I can pull off the bench a lot of good hitters and one through nine we are not a weak out in the lineup at all. So we knew that was a strength.”
Fairport celebrated the dominant showing with the unofficial team mascot, stuffed octopus ‘Sprinkles.’ ‘Sprinkles’ was used by the team as a form of motivation throughout the season. It can be flipped to either the orange side which represents angry or the yellow side for happy.
“During the game, we always have it angry because coach isn’t happy unless we’re winning,” Allen said. “And then once we win we flip it over and on the big yellow octopus we have that we’re 2022 (Class) AA champions and now we can add another one to another tentacle.”
As for the name, Johnson has a simple reasoning behind it.
“Everyone can get ice cream after the game, but only winners get sprinkles,” Johnson said.
On Sunday, Fairport made it clear early on that they would be getting sprinkles postgame. After a quiet first inning, the first offensive eruption came in the second. Waverly Milliman led off with a single and scored the first run on an RBI double from Mikayla Fiorito. Fairport pushed across two more runs before Nicole Allen came to the plate with a runner first. She blasted a 3-1 pitch to right-center field and came all the way around for a two-run inside-the-park home run. Fairport would tack on a sixth run on a double steal of second and home that allowed Juliana Catalano to score before Isi Hurlbut was tagged out on the bases.
Greece chipped away in the fourth after back-to-back triples from Carly Cegielski and Brooke Bassett cut the margin to 6-1. Fairport answered quickly with another onslaught in the fifth. 11 hitters came to the dish as part of a seven-run inning for the Red Raiders. The first three hitters reach including an RBI triple from Milliman. Fiorito delivered another RBI hit and Allen plated her third run of the game with an RBI single. Catalano capped off the frame with a two-run double to make it a 13-1 lead.
Cegielski smashed an RBI double for Greece to get one back in the sixth but that was all the offense that came for the Storm. Fairport put the final touches on the win with a three-run bottom half of the sixth including a two-run single from Allen. Allen finished the day with three hits, two runs and five RBI en route to being crowned MVP of Class AAA.
Kailey Gardner finished it off with a 1-2-3 seventh to secure the victory. Gardner finished with seven strikeouts in the complete game win and limited Greece to seven hits, three of which came off the bat of Cegielski.
“Kailey was a junior last year and she got some innings and she threw well,” Johnson said. “We were just waiting to see what she could as the number one and she did well all year. She’s got a great changeup so it keeps them off balance.”
“I was just so excited, so hyped to win,” Allen said. “All of my at-bats I wanted to battle and do it for the team and I produced and it worked in our favor. The whole team killed it.”
The win marks Fairport’s second title win in the last three seasons after winning Class AA in 2022 and the sixth title overall in records dating back to 2009. They’ll advance to the regionals on Saturday, June 1 at Webster Schroeder High School. The Red Raiders will await the winner of Tuesday’s Section VI finals between Orchard Park and Lancaster. The first pitch of the regional contest is scheduled for 5:30 p.m.
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