SYRACUSE – Winning a Section III Class A championship in 2023 was difficult enough for the Jamesville-DeWitt baseball team. Doing it again in 2024 would prove even more challenging.
All the Red Rams had to do was (1) overcome a late deficit in the quarterfinals, (2) return two days later to deal with a long-time powerhouse in the semifinals in a game that ended after 11 p.m. at night before (3) winning the title game after a 24-hour postponement with yet another come-from-behind effort.
Somehow, it all happened, J-D culminating this memorable and emotional run by edging Camden 6-5 in the title game Tuesday at Onondaga Community College when Ryan Walker drove home the decisive run with two out in the bottom of the seventh inning.
In each of the playoff games, the Rams trailed, only to find a way back, but what made the final particularly engrossing was that J-D only emerged after Camden twice erased two-run deficits.
Leads of 3-1 (in the fifth inning) and 5-3 (in the seventh inning) vanished, with Walker having to pitch in relief and get out of a jam after Luke VanMarter exited and Kolton Kelley delivered a clutch two-run single to tie it again.
With one out in the bottom of the seventh, J-D’s no. hitter, Dylan Bertollini, was hit. Aaron Ko grounded out, but Walker then doubled to the gap and Bertollini, running with the pitch, tore all the way home for the sectional championship.
It ended a memorable game for Walker, who drove in the Rams’ first run in the bottom of the fourth to erase Camden’s early 1-0 lead.
The Rams went in front with two more runs in that frame and, after the Blue Devils tied it 3-3 in the top of the fifth, Walker returned with the bases loaded in the bottom of the fifth, and his groundout scored a run before a wild pitch scored another run, making it 5-3 and setting up all of the late drama.
Long before this, J-D nearly didn’t make it past the first hurdle.
South Jefferson, the no. 8 seed, got within three outs of ousting the Rams in the May 23 quarterfinal, only to see J-D turn it around and prevail by a 3-2 margin.
Much of the game involved frustration on the Rams’ part as, for six innings, South Jefferson pitcher Ryker Pennock constantly escaped trouble and kept J-D off the board.
The Spartans went up 2-0 in the top of the fourth when Pennock and Nate Matteson drove in runs off VanMarter, and while it didn’t score again, South Jefferson still had that lead going to the bottom of the seventh.
Finally, though, the Rams solved Pennock. Griffon Filighera singled, and Aidan McGuire’s double brought him home before Eamon Giblin singled to move McGuire to third.
With VanMarter at the plate, Pennock threw a wild pitch and McGuire raced home while Giblin went to second. Then VanMarter singled, scoring Giblin to win it.
Westhill, in the sectional semifinal on May 25 at OCC, was expected to provide an even greater obstacle, both because of its championship heritage and the strength of its pitching staff.
Yet J-D solved all of it, overcoming a slow start to defeat the Warriors 12-6.
The Rams did not flinch when Westhill got four runs off Giblin in the top of the first. Instead, McGuire’s inside-the-park home run sparked a three-run answer in the bottom of the first, the key blow Bertollini’s two-run double.
After tying it 4-4 in the second, J-D seized control in the bottom of the fourth, taking full advantage of a string of Warriors mistakes to plate four runs, three of them coming home on errors and the other on Walker’s single.
Much more conventional was VanMarter clearing the bases in the fifth with a three-run triple to answer Westhill cutting the margin to 8-6 earlier in the frame. Despite his rough start, Giblin struck out nine in 4 2/3 innings before Filighera closed it out in relief.
After waiting out Monday’s postponement, J-D came back to OCC Tuesday, again faced a lot of adversity – and again conquered it, securing a return to the state tournament, where it will face Section X’s Massena in the regional round Thursday at Salmon River High School.
