Chris Mancuso had already made quite a name for himself at Bishop Grimes, publicly announcing a “retirement” from basketball through social media that poked fun at his own limited hoops skills.
Baseball, though, is another matter, as Mancuso proved by spinning together the Cobras’ first no-hitter in more than a quarter-century last Friday afternoon in his team’s season opener, a 5-0 victory over the Hannibal Warriors.
Only getting the start because of injuries to other pitchers, Mancuso was far from dominant at times, walking six batters and hitting another. But he managed to keep Hannibal from registering a hit as Mancuso amassed nine strikeouts and logged 102 pitches, also getting defensive help when sophomore Matt Vonden Steinen made an over-the-shoulder catch in the bottom of the third.
By then, the Cobras had a 3-0 lead thanks to two runs in the second inning and another in the third. It tacked on single runs in the fourth and seventh as Liam Cavanaugh earned a pair of RBIs, with Johnny Wike and Camden Ciotoli also driving in runs.
All of this made Saturday’s 14-1 defeat to Solvay a bit easier to take. Though they held the potent Bearcats to seven hits, three Grimes pitchers – Wike, Shawn Gashi and Jordan Newman – surrendered nine walks, many of them in a seven-run fourth Solvay fourth inning, and got little help from the defense, who made six errors. Matt Tarby scored the Cobras’ lone run in the bottom of the third.
Meanwhile, Fayetteville-Manlius, having changed head coaches again when Jason Rutkey took over for J.J. Potrikus, is working under the new three-game series format that the CNY Counties League adapted, only to see its first series with Baldwinsville, set for April 4-7, postponed by the bad weather.
Fortunately, the Hornets didn’t have another series scheduled for the following week, so it waited until Friday and made up the first of those games with B’ville, a wild affair that led to a 10-8 defeat to the Bees.
Though it never led, F-M also didn’t give up after B’ville streaked to a 5-0 first-inning lead. It kept going until, trailing 10-4, the Hornets netted four runs in the bottom of the seventh and nearly made it all the way back.
Josh Loeffler and Colin Sommers both drove in two runs, with Anthony Nucerino and Kyle Walters adding two hits apiece. Nucerino also pitched 2 1/3 innings in relief of Colin Green as he and Matt Truman got one RBI apiece. Billy Clifford led the Bees with three hits and four RBIs.
A day later, in a non-league game against Oswego, the Hornets won 5-3, as again it started slowly, falling behind 3-0 in the top of the first, but settled down as Peter Miller pitched six solid innings, striking out seven.
Still, the run support didn’t come right away. F-M got on the board in the second inning but still trailed, 3-1, when it exploded for four runs in the bottom of the sixth. Walters got credit fro an RBI, as did Loeffler, who relieved Miller in the seventh and got the last three outs.
