A big early-season marker was laid down by the East Syracuse Minoa baseball team last Monday afternoon as it went to Tom Dotterer Field and recorded a 6-4 victory over defending Section III Class A champion Christian Brothers Academy.
CBA sent out its ace, Jack Sheridan, to the mound, but despite Sheridan recording 10 strikeouts, the Spartans steadily got to him, scoring twice in the second, fourth and fifth innings to build a 6-0 lead.
Jeff Loder’s home run was the big blow as he finished with three RBIs, with Nolan Penoyer, Jason Sweredoski and Zach Grevelding driving in one run apiece. Sam Jenkins scored two runs.
Grevelding got the start on the mound for ESM and kept the Brothers’ bats quiet until the bottom of the fifth, when it climbed back in the game helped by Bryce Moore’s bases-clearing three-run triple. Still, Grevelding held on until the seventh, when reliever Ricky Neuser tossed a scoreless frame to get the save.
CBA would break this brief skid on Wednesday by beating Auburn 5-2, getting even for its loss to the Maroons the week before by scoring two runs in the first and third innings and adding a run in the sixth.
Mike McCully tossed a complete game for the Brothers, limiting Auburn to three hits and three walks. CBA, for its part, only had five hits, two of them by Moore, who earned an RBI as Jack Maser walked twice and scored a pair of runs.
In the first of two games against Cortland on Friday, ESM dropped a 10-9, 11-inning marathon not decided until the Purple Tigers’ Steve Duff doubled home the winning run in the bottom of the 11th.
That it even got that far was a tribute to Cortland erasing an 8-3 deficit with five runs in the bottom of the seventh. Then both sides were quiet until the 11th, when ESM briefly seized a 9-8 lead, only to give up that margin when James Lane drove home Jake Prunier prior to Steve’s game-winner.
Jenkins carried the Spartans by going five-for-six with three doubles and three RBIs. Penoyer and Jack Silmeser each drove in two runs, with Grevelding adding two hits and an RBI. Ryan Seburn pitched five innings before Tim Crouse and Ricky Neuser worked the rest of the way. Prunier pitched four innings of relief on Cortland’s side.
ESM would get even with Cortland on Saturday in a 10-5 victory, the damage early with a five-run first inning and two more runs in the second to go up 7-0.
Ryan Seburn, with a triple and three RBIs, led the Spartans’ push. Loder had three hits and three runs scored, adding an RBI as Penoyer also drove in a run. James DePaul doubled and scored twice as Grevelding pitched 6 1/3 innings to earn the win, recording five strikeouts.
