From the moment it found out that the Section III Class AA tournament would take place at Radisson Greens, the Baldwinsville boys golf team geared toward peaking for that season-ending showdown in its own backyard.
And it led to a championship.
The Bees lay claim to the sectional banner Wednesday with a 12-shot victory over Fayetteville-Manlius, the team with which it shared the CNY Counties League regular-season title.
B’ville, led by the duo of junior Ryan Fecco and senior Tim Garaffo, posted a team total of 385, to F-M’s 397. West Genesee, with 406, edged Cicero-North Syracuse Blue for third place.
It only figured that Fecco finished atop the individual standings, since lives close to the course and works there, too. Having played Radisson dozens of times, he had a better feel for the 6,600-yard, Robert Trent Jones Sr.-designed layout than any of the other golfers in the field.
For the rest of the team, the knowledge of Radisson was more limited, since B’ville’s home matches take place across town at Timber Banks. But head coach Karen Schmidt said she made sure her team practiced at Radisson the two days before the sectional tournament so that all of them could get a feel for the course.
Once play began Wednesday morning at Radisson, Fecco was ready. He shot 35 on the front nine and 36 on the back nine, making six birdies and five bogeys while not putting a double bogey on his card.
The one-under-par 71 was good enough for Fecco to beat West Genesee’s Joe Morgan (73) by two shots for individual honors, while Garraffo chimed in with a two-over-par 74 to finish alone in third place.
Ben Donohue began the championship charge by shooting a six-over-par 78. Maxwell Dec finished with an 80, while Zach Ravas posted an 82, just inside the cut line. Senior Will Molini had an 85 as Matt Shipman shot a 90. Dan Reiser had a 95 and Trevor Tooke earned a 101.
All of this helped B’ville pull away from F-M, with whom it split two regular-season meetings. Kyle Gilroy, with a 77, had the top individual effort, one ahead of John Cacchio’s 78 and two clear of Tim Zapisek’s 79, with Colin Sommers contributing an 81 and Jason Coleman netting an 82.
Fecco, Garraffo, Donohue, Dec and Ravas will all take part in the sectional state qualifier in late May at Seven Oaks in Hamilton.
