ONONDAGA COUNTY – For the second time in as many weeks, the Baldwinsville baseball team would try and upend West Genesee, perhaps its main obstacle to repeating as Section III Class AA champions.
Meeting again Thursday afternoon, the Bees were one out from another defeat to the Wildcats when Aidan Milburn, with one swing of the bat, reversed his team’s fortunes and delivered a dramatic 2-1 victory.
Their first encounter April 25 had seen WG come from behind in the seventh inning to win it 9-6. Now it was B’ville ace Kai Girard getting his turn against the Wildcats’ Talon Elkins.
They went 0-0 through the first three innings. Then, in the top of the fourth, WG’s Ryan Klementowski got on base and raced home when Anthony Augello reached on an error.
From there, it stayed 1-0 as Matt Carner, relieving Girard in the sixth, tossed two scoreless innings, the pair having earned nine strikeouts and held WG to five hits, three of them by Jake DePalma.
In the bottom of the seventh with one out, Girard struck out, but the dropped third strike allowed him to reach base. Josh Leonard then singled and Jacob Penafeather’s infield hit loaded the bases.
Elkins got the second out – but then Milburn lifted a deep drive that reached the left-field wall, out of reach, allowing Girard and Leonard to score and B’ville to win it.
Prior to this, WG had seen its 10-game win streak ended by Cicero-North Syracuse 1-0 last Tuesday as Bryce Zicaro pitched a complete-game shutout – just as he had done against B’ville on April 22.
Meanwhile, the Bees were at Liverpool, steadily working its way to a 6-1 victory over the Warriors by scoring twice in the first inning and adding single runs in four of the ensuing six frames.
Perry Chetney proved impossible to get out, going four-for-four with a home run, two doubles, a single and three RBIs as Milburn and Luca Beals also drove in runs.
Gavin Miller, who contributed an RBI at the plate, didn’t need much, going 6 2/3 innings on the mound and holding Liverpool to four hits while overcoming a trio of walks.
Right after the comeback win over West Genesee, B’ville had to turn around and face Rochester McQuaid on Friday afternoon, but still had enough momentum to win its third in a row, beating the Knights 5-3.
After surrendering all of McQuaid’s runs in the top of the first, Milburn blanked the Knights for the rest of his five-inning mound stint before Colin Ray tossed two scoreless innings of relief.
B’ville used a run in the first and a four-run second inning to move in front. Milburn and Chetney were credited with RBIs as Welch scored twice.
Early this week, the Bees would again test C-NS, this time at the Gillette Road complex, and then go to Fayetteville-Manlius before hosting St. Joseph’s (Buffalo) on Saturday.
