By PAUL GOTHAM
LIVONIA, N.Y. — Calla McCombs nearly broke into a home run trot before she realized her celebration was a little premature.
It didn’t matter, though, the junior catcher and her Bloomfield teammates took another step Monday night toward their ultimate goal.
McCombs highlighted a four-run sixth inning with an RBI double, and the Bombers went on to defeat Bolivar-Richburg, 4-0 in the Class C state qualifier, Monday at the Saunders Complex on the Livonia CSD campus.
With the win, Bloomfield, a state finalist a year ago, advanced to the state quarterfinals and will play Section VI champion Chautauqua Lake.
“Last year we fell short,” said McCombs referring to a 1-0 loss to Berne-Knox-Westerlo (II) in the state championship game. “We’re all so hungry this year. That’s where we want to be. That’s our end goal. Since the beginning of the season, we’ve said that’s where we want to be.”
Monday night’s contest presented a challenge for the Bombers who had taken their three previous postseason wins by a combined total of 30-2.
After five innings of play, the scoreboard showed nothing but zeroes for either team.
“Most of us love these pressure situations,” said senior pitcher Ashlyn Wright who struck out 14 and twirled a one-hitter. “We thrive under them. We were staying true to ourselves. We know where we are, what we can do and we stick to it.”
Bloomfield broke through in the sixth.
Sydney Falsone snapped the scoreless tie with a one-out single through the right side of the infield that brought home Sawyer Gallup from second. Falsone advanced to second on the play, stole third and scored when twin sister Addison Falsone executed a squeeze bunt.
McCombs punctuated the inning with an RBI triple.
“I hadn’t done great in my previous two at-bats,” she said. “I was getting a little antsy and impatient. I got ahead in the count a little bit, and she (Bolivar-Richburg pitcher Kylee Whiting) tends to come inside with a fastball when she’s behind in the count.”
McCombs guessed right on a 3-1 pitch and barely missed a home run.
“Honestly, I was celebrating at first. I was rounding first, and I was, Let’s go! Then it was oh, I gotta go.”
She eventually scored on a wild pitch for the final margin of victory.
“What a crew I got,” said Bloomfield head coach, Mark Jacobs. “They just kept plugging away, plugging away and believing in themselves. They got the big hits when they needed them.”
No. 4 Bolivar-Richburg (16-4) knocked off top-seeded Dundee-Bradford and then No. 2 Oakfield-Alabama to secure the C2 title and reach Monday’s qualifier.
“They definitely have been resilient all season,” Bolivar-Richburg head coach Brooke Lovell said of her squad. “If someone would have told me that we would have made it this far at the beginning of the season, I probably wouldn’t have believed them. The kids have definitely been resilient and grown a lot. I’m proud of the hard work that they’ve put in all season.”
Whiting, a ninth-grader, matched Wright pitch-for-pitch through five innings. The ninth-grader retired the first 13 batters she faced and took a perfect game into the fifth before Bloomfield’s offense found its rhythm one inning later.
“She definitely has been the catalyst especially come sectional time,” Lovell said. “We’re really looking forward to having her for the next three years. She definitely works hard and puts in a lot of time to get better at what she does. She’s deserved all the success she has had this season.”
Bloomfield’s game against Chautauqua Lake is a 7:30 p.m. start on Friday at Frontier High School.
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