After yet another successful regular season, the Baldwinsville boys tennis team would test itself in five different divisions during last week’s Section III Class A tournament at SUNY-Cortland.
And it was the Bees’ duo of Scott Ferrari and Mason Soeder making the biggest impact. With a first-round bye, Ferrari and Soeder beat Mitch Eager and Karin Inthirakot (Cicero-North Syracuse) 6-0, 6-2 and, in the semifinals, rolled past West Genesee’s Stefan Atanasov and Pat Copeland 6-0, 6-2.
Now, in the final, Ferrari and Soeder had to figure out the Fayetteville-Manlius tandem of Ravi Dhawan and Vince Grasso. For a while, it looked like the Bees’ duo had done so, winning the first set 6-3, but Ferrari and Soeder could not hang on as Dhawan and Grasso rallied and won the match by taking the next two sets 6-2 and 6-3.
Up in first doubles, Chris Dotto and Nick Walker made it to the semifinals with a 6-2, 6-2 sweep over Fulton’s Anthony and Robert Salerno, and pushed F-M’s top duo of James DeSorbo and Vince Sorrentino to three sets before falling two games short in a 6-2, 1-6, 7-5 defeat.
Dan Watkins, playing in third singles, defeated Syracuse East’s Muhialdain Muhialdain 6-2, 6-1 in the quarterfinals, only to get tripped up in the semifinals by F-M’s Tom Miro, who won in straight sets 6-2, 6-0 over Watkins.
Alex Shaban lost his second singles quarterfinal to Cicero-North Syracuse’s Connor Millias 6-3, 6-0. In first singles, Sam Damato also lost in the quarterfinals, falling to Auburn’s Scott Minnoe in a 6-1, 6-0 decision.
