SYRACUSE — After winning three of Section III’s six softball championships last spring, the Tri-Valley league almost came up empty this year.
New Hartford, the No. 1 seed in Class A, rallied twice Friday, erasing an 8-1 deficit in the fifth inning, then coming back from down 11-8 to defeat Chittenango 12-11 on the newly expanded Carrier Park field complex.
“It was a very, very stressful game (and) we’re not used to being down,” said Ruby Gehringer who pitched a complete game, drove home the runs that tied the game in the seventh, and scored the winner. “You can’t give up. … You’ve got to fight to the end.”
New Hartford’s Spartans (18-2) won for the 11th time in their last 12 games, and earned the program’s first sectional crown since 2022. The section’s highest scoring team topped 10 runs for the 14th time this spring, and Rebecca Gillander hit the team’s 24th home run, another total that tops Section III.
While the Spartans were mounting their comeback against Chittenango’s Bears (17-5), Marcellus was rallying to beat Notre Dame of Utica, also a No. 1 seed, 6-3 in the Class B game on one neighboring field, and Cicero-North Syracuse defeated defending champion Rome Free Academy 7-1 on another.
Rome Free Academy had won its first sectional softball title last spring while Whitesboro and Camden had repeated as champions in classes AA and A, respectively. Whitesboro was beaten 10-9 by West Genesee Tuesday in this season’s semifinals after leading 6-2 earlier in the game. New Hartford scored 14 runs in the first inning on the way to a 19-0 semifinal win over Camden, the team that had beaten the Spartans in the 2024 and 2025 title games.
Class AA Fayetteville-Manlius, Class C McGraw and Class D Cincinnatus won Friday’s other 2026 finals.
Big inning sparks Spartans
New Hartford scored seven runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to tie a game it had trailed 8-1 against Chittenango. Eight consecutive Spartans reached base to start the inning and the first seven scored, the last two on a two-out, bases-loaded single by Norah Galiulo, tying the game.
Chittenango added three runs in the top of the sixth and went up 11-8 on a two-run single by Karalynne Carmon.
The first two New Hartford batters were retired in the bottom of the inning before Gillander homered with two outs.
The game went to the seventh inning with Chittenango leading 11-9. Gehringer retired the Bears in order in the top of the inning, holding them without a run for the first time since the third and fourth.
Jenna Gattari started the bottom of the seventh with a single up the middle for the Spartans. Leadoff hitter Addie Way followed with a hit to the right side, but the batted ball struck Gattari on her way to second base for the first out of the inning.
Galiulo walked, and Gehringer set a ball to the right of center field for a double the drove home the tying runs. Lexi Mungari’s infield hit put runners on the corners for Alessandra D’Apice who singled home the run that ended the game.
“We all stayed up,” D’Apice said. “We kept each other going. … As soon as it did happen, it was a great feeling. I was just happy that I could help my team get the win.”
Gehringer, Way and Amelia Nimey each had three of the 16 New Hartford hits, Way scored three runs, and Gehringer drove in four.
“It still feels surreal at this point,” said Melissa Gehringer, New Hartford’s first-year varsity coach and Ruby Gehringer’s mother. “These girls, they have worked so hard this year, coming through time and time again. I’m just so happy they could pull it off.”
Lauren Machan homered, singled and scored three runs for Chittenango.
Marcellus takes lead in sixth, defeats Notre Dame
The Notre Dame Jugglers spotted Marcellus a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning of the Class B championship game, and came back with a three-run Sophie Scialdone home run in the bottom of the first,
The scored remained 3-2 in favor of the Jugglers until the top of the sixth. Zofia Polkowski drove home the tying run with a two-out single, and scored to give the Mustangs the lead when Emma Dilmore hit a hard comebacker that ricocheted off pitcher Ella Trinkaus’ glove to the third base line; Trinkaus retrieved the ball and threw across the infield too late to retire Dilmore.
Marcellus (11-8) added two runs on wild pitches in the seventh inning.
The Mustangs, runners-up to Solvay last spring, had previously beaten Notre Dame in the 2024 sectional final. The Jugglers were also finalists in 2023 when they were beaten by Westhill.
Scialdone also singled and had two of the six hits Friday for Notre Dame (13-5).
Cicero-North Syracuse pulls away from early tie with RFA
Rome Free Academy’s Black Knights scored their lone run in the top of the third to tie Cicero-North Syracuse in the early going before the Northstars tallied two runs in the bottom of the inning and added four more in the fourth.
The win gave Cicero-North Syracuse (16-5), runner-up to Liverpool in 2024, its first Class AAA sectional title. The class created by the expansion from five classes to six, is being contested for the third time this spring.
Kenidee Campbell had two of the five hits for the Black Knights (11-11) and scored on a hit by Saige Pelton.
Mia Farone homered, singled, scored two runs and drove in two for Cicero-North Syracuse. Kiyara Bembry pitched three scoreless innings in relief of Mila Owens, the starting and winning pitcher for the Northstars.
What’s next for New Hartford?
The Spartans face two rounds of regional playoffs and will travel for both games. New Hartford plays first time Section X champion Gouverneur, a 14-3 winner over Malone in its title game Friday, in a Wednesday regional semifinal at St. Lawrence University.
The winner of that Wednesday game plays on the following weekend against the winner of a regional playoff between Section VII Peru and Section II Averill Park. If Peru advances, the next round would be played at Plattsburgh High School; Averill Park would host the game at Lansingburgh High School.
State semifinals will be contested June 12-13 at the Greenlight Networks Grand Slam Park complex in Binghamton.
This article originally appeared on Times Telegram: Tri-Valley League goes 1-for-3 in Section III softball finals
Reporting by Jon Rathbun, Herkimer Times Telegram / Times Telegram
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
