Credit the Christian Brothers Academy baseball team as the first of the local sides to play a game in Central New York this spring after a long, lingering winter delayed the start of the 2015 season.
But it was the Brothers’ luck to have to face the newly combined Syracuse squad and its left-handed pitching ace, Jeff Belge, in last Tuesday’s opener, and it didn’t get on the board against Belge in an 8-4 defeat.
CBA had two great chances to make it more interesting. In the top of the first, Webb Little singled, and the Brothers had two runners on base, but Belge escaped that jam, and did so again in the third when Syracuse right fielder Pat Myers threw out a runner trying to score from home.
By then, Syracuse had a 2-0 lead, thanks to a Brothers throwing error that produced both runs in the bottom of the first. Myers also doubled twice, one of them scoring a pair of runs in the fifth as Syracuse scored five times to break it open.
Long-time head coach Tom Dotterer, entering his 36th season with CBA, split up the pitching duties. Emmett Dunn started and went just two innings as Webb Little, Nate Burns, James McGlynn and Tommy Pirro also saw mound time by game’s end.
Belge lasted five innings, striking out 11 and only allowing that first-inning hit. After he left, CBA got on the board with Camillo Spinoso’s RBI double in the sixth and Little’s three-run home run in the top of the seventh, but it could not catch up. Spinoso also made a spectacular grab on a foul pop-up in the fifth, but could not hold on to it as he fell to the ground.
As for the team CBA lost to in last year’s sectional final, Jamesville-DeWitt, its season debut on Thursday didn’t involve facing a top national prospect. Instead, the Red Rams hosted Mexico and put together a 5-0 shutout of the Tigers.
Three pitchers – Jake Binder, Mike Sinopoli and Kyle Naugle – combined on a one-hitter, the Red Rams getting the only run it needed in the first inning, but adding four runs in the bottom of the fourth for insurance. Binder doubled and earned three RBIs as part of a four-hit effort.
East Syracuse Minoa, playing spring break games in Virginia Beach, Virginia, opened with a 9-4 victory over a local opponent, Tallwood, grabbing a 5-0 lead by the fourth inning and, after Tallwood cut it to 5-4, scoring twice in the sixth and seventh innings to pull away.
Matt Hunter pitched 4 1/3 innings for the win, with Shane Krawec seeing a long relief stint. Tyler Harrig went deep for a home run and finished with three RBIs, while Nick Castrello also drove in three runs. Brandon Breen added an RBI as Danny Williams doubled, singled, walked and scored three times.
ESM made it back-to-back wins on Wednesday by handling Cape Henry 9-4, managing to score all of its runs in the first two innings – six in the first, three in the second. Breen connected on a round-tripper as he and Jake Temple both drove in two runs. Williams and Sam Jenkins both had a double and RBI and Nick Pullano added an RBI.
Then, in a 12-5 defeat to Norfolk Academy, ESM didn’t get on the board until the fifth inning, by which point Norfolk held a 9-0 lead. Breen still had two hits, scored two runs and added an RBI as Harrig and Pullano shared the pitching duties.
Back home, ESM had a non-league game Saturday against Cicero-North Syracuse and lost, 13-2, to the Northstars, getting both of its runs in the third inning on hits from Breen and Hunter. Breen was responsible for two of the Spartans’ four hits.
Bishop Grimes opened its season in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and went 2-3 in those games. The Cobras beat Buckhannan-Upshur (West Virginia) 11-8 and Princeton (New Jersey) 5-0, this after taking defeats to Atlantic Shores (Virginia) 4-1, Washington 13-7 and Nordonia (Ohio) 14-4.
