ONONDAGA COUNTY – Without a doubt, Baldwinsville’s boys tennis team hopes that it will get a second chance at the Fayetteville-Manlius side it nearly beat on May 2.
And the two sides could square off again in the Section III Class A team tournament, where the Bees have the no. 2 seed and the Hornets the top seed, both in quarterfinals on Monday against Cicero-North Syracuse with the semifinals Tuesday and the finals set for Wednesday at Utica Parkway Courts.
Turning up, the Bees met that same C-NS side last Monday afternoon and did not drop a set in any of the matches on the way to handling the Northstars 7-0.
Nathan Smith got it going in singles, routing Drew Errante 6-1, 6-0. Eric Ventura nearly matched it beating Zarin Liangsiri 6-0, 6-2 as Mason Doan, in first singles, won 6-4, 6-2 over Mike DeGroat.
Closer matches took place in doubles, such as Kai Wilson and Nick Fogu working through two tough sets to win 6-4, 7-6 over Joe Johnston and Dylan Fournier as Ethon Haahr and Zach Pendergast topped Austin Fosberg and Parker Cook 6-3, 6-4.
Nearly getting a shutout in fourth doubles, Connor Donovan and Tom Canfield beat Gavin Nguyen and Tom Christou 6-0, 6-1, while Andrew Jung and Nick Helbig won 6-1, 6-4 over Ryan Fehrman and Ryan Keil.
Then, in a non-league match against unbeaten Jamesville-DeWitt a day later, the Bees took three of four doubles matches and swept all the singles to beat the Red Rams 6-1.
Smith’s 6-0, 6-0 shutout of Zain Hegazy set the tone, with Ventura handling Anthony Fico 6-2, 6-1 and Doan knocking off Carson Souser in a pair of 6-2 sets. Jung and Helbig could not hold on to an early lead in a 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 loss to Will Sharlow and Shreyank Bhatt.
