BINGHAMTON – If ever there was an instance where a won/loss record did not reflect what was actually accomplished, it was with the 2022 edition of Fayetteville-Manlius baseball.
Playing 24 games, the Hornets lost 13 of them. Yet it accomplished more than any other team in program history, its journey not ending until the New York State Public High School Athletic Association Class AA championship game.
Only in Saturday’s state final, when F-M fell 4-2 to Rochester McQuaid at Binghamton’s Mirabito Stadium, did the Hornets’ remarkable post-season run conclude, more due to the quality of the Knights than anything the Hornets did wrong.
A day earlier, F-M met Section IX’s Pine Bush in the state semifinal at Binghamton University and proved, in an emphatic way, that it didn’t need to light up the scoreboard to find the win column, battling past the Bushers 2-1.’
As he had done three previous times in the post-season, Max Danaher got the start on the mound. And he would need to be good since Pine Bush counterpart Alex Bucolo retired the first nine batters he faced.
Danaher matched the zeroes and kept it 0-0 until the top of the fourth inning, when Michael Dutch, in his second time facing Bucolo, singled for F-M’s first hit.
The second hit was even bigger. With Dutch on second after a sacrifice bunt, Chris Hoalcraft delivered yet another big blow, a single that scored Dutch.
An inning later, F-M doubled its 1-0 margin, Eitan Spinoza reaching base and Ethan Powell bringing Spinoza home with a single.
Meanwhile, Danaher kept baffling the Bushers through six scoreless innings, retiring 13 in a row at one point, then quickly recorded the first two outs in the seventh to move to the brink of victory.
Pine Bush battled to the end, though. Connor Stacklum singled, went to second on a passed ball, and raced home when Josh Martin doubled to the gap.
Now it all hinged on Jack Taylor at the plate, but Danaher struck him out, his fourth strikeout against four hits and two walks, and F-M was in its first-ever state final.
Waiting for them was McQuaid, who had claimed its own tense state semifinal 7-6 over Massapequa and were looking to defend the state title it won the last time the tournament was held in 2019.
Getting the start, sophomore pitcher Dan Swift surrendered a first-inning walk to Aiden Stewart, who then stole second and third before scoring on Liam Ciaramatro’s single.
Matt Wilmarth, pitching for McQuaid, shut out F-M through the first four innings, but Swift settled down, too, tossing three scoreless frames, with plenty of help from behind him.
James Mason threw out Will Russotti trying to score from second in the bottom of the second. Two innings later, Tanner Deragon tripled, but when he tried to score, Danaher relayed to Sam Kuss, whose throw to catcher Nick Wratney led to a tag at home.
Briefly, F-M rewarded this work in the top of the fifth, Tom Woodbridge walking and, with two out, Hoalcraft again delivering with his bat, doubling to the gap to plate Woodbridge.
When Swift surrendered a double to Allen in the bottom of the fifth, Seth Albert relieved him, but Hall greeted him with another double that gave the Knights a 2-1 lead. Hall went to third and scored on Russotti’s grounder.
F-M cut it to 3-2 in the top of the sixth thanks to Danaher, who tripled and then scored on Ethan Powell’s single. But McQuaid restored the margin in the bottom of the sixth on Deragon’s RBI double, and Wilmarth blanked the Hornets in the seventh to end it.
Now a senior class that included Hoalcraft, Mason, Powell and Colin Mott graduates, but having Danaher, Swfit, Kuss, Dutch, Wratney, Spinoza and Woodridge back for 2023 means that F-M might not need to wait until late May to start playing its best baseball again.
