By STEVE BRICKLER
HONEOYE FALLS, N.Y. — Tournament MVP Ashlyn Wright tossed a one-hitter while striking out six to lead No. 1 Bloomfield to the Section V Class C1 title over No. 11 Warsaw 14-0 on a cold and windy Saturday afternoon at Honeoye Falls-Lima High School. The Bombers successfully defended their 2024 sectional championship that ultimately saw them fall in the State Class C finals a year ago.
After allowing a lead-off single to the Tigers’ Zoe Kaminski, Wright allowed only one more baserunner for the remainder of the game, a walk in the second inning. The offense gave Wright all she would need with five runs in the bottom of the first and then six more in the bottom of the second.
“It’s definitely nice to have security runs for the purposes of coming back. But getting up and ahead is great pitching wise,” said Wright, a West Point commit.
“I tell my girls, normally if we get three runs, we’re going to win with Ashlyn on the mound,” said Bomber coach Mark Jacobs. “So to get five in the first and then six in the second it felt good because we have been kind of slow starting this year.”
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To Jacobs’ point, the Bombers (19-1) have given up more than two runs on only two occasions this season, winning them both. Their only loss of the season came to Burnt Hills-Ballston Spa of Section II, a class AA squad. The shutout was the 10th of the season.
“We played some really great teams to get used to playing close games,” said Wright of the Bombers schedule this season. “It was really great in getting us in a situation like the state finals.”
The Bombers bats got going right away with a leadoff single by Sydney Falsone. After a sacrifice bunt moved Falsone to second, Calla McCombs tripled off the left center wall to bring home Falsone for the first run of the game. Bloomfield scored the rest of their runs in the bottom of the first with two outs, highlighted by a double to right center by Brianna Leitten that scored McCombs and a two-run single by Abby O’Brien.
The bottom of the second saw more of the same as the Bombers continued to hit the ball hard. McCombs took another ball to the wall, this time for a run-scoring double that plated Addison Falzone for the inning’s first run. Sawyer Gallup added a run scoring triple to the gap as Bloomfield extended their lead.
“Kirby Wright’s been doing a lot of work with us with hitting, he’s my hitting guy. I turn them over to him, he’s done a great job. I tell you what, the girls pounded the ball,” said Jacobs.
With Wright taking care of business in the circle and the defense taking care of anything that came at them, the Bombers cruised home from there.
For a young Warsaw team, their Cinderella run through the tournament as an 11 seed came to an end. They came into the tournament at 5-11 and won three games to reach the finals. With only two departing seniors, look for the Tigers to use this experience as fuel to propel them further in upcoming seasons. They finish at 8-12.
Bloomfield now turn its eyes towards the state qualifier game on Monday versus Bolivar-Richburg in hopes of making another state tournament run that this time results in a state championship.
“We came up a couple runs short last year at the end and we’re hoping we get the chance to fix that problem,” said Jacobs. “We’ve got to keep playing our best. If we play our best we should have a chance everywhere we go but if we don’t play a good game against those teams, they will beat you.”
Said Wright, “A lot of our team is all seniors so it’s definitely last one, best one. And getting to the state finals you have some urge, you really want to get back there, you’re willing to do whatever it takes, so we’ve worked really hard on hitting a lot and getting ahead of the game.”
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