Within the span of a week before and after Labor Day weekend, the Baldwinsville boys golf team learned, again, just how close the competition was atop the Salt City Athletic Conference Metro division.

‘On Aug. 31, the Bees faced Fayetteville-Manlius at Woodcrest, and led by Max Dec and Vic Ianno, pulled out a close 195-198 victory over the Hornets.

There was a tie atop the individual standings, but B’ville had two golfers, Dec and Ianno, shoot 34, while only Adam Butch reached that number for F-M.

That, along with a 37 from Matt Shipman, gave the Bees a lead it would not relinquish as Anthony Petragnani got a 42 and Aidan Farmer had a 43 to offset solid F-M efforts from Mike Millimaci (38), Sean Arthur (41), Matt LaCombe (42) and Andrew Heyman (43).

Good as this was, B’ville could not follow it up when it returned to Timber Banks last Tuesday afternoon and took a 195-200 defeat to Cicero-North Syracuse’s Blue team.

Claiming its fourth win in a row, the Northstars watched Dec shoot a 34, but then had the next four lowest rounds, starting with Jake Nardozza and Ryan Sisco, who each posted 37.

Andrew Brunozzi added a 38, and those totals, plus a 41 from Darin Townsend-Goldwaite, overcame what the rest of the Bees did. Farmer, Tanner Glavin and Alex Pompo each shot 42.

Against Liverpool two days later at Timber Banks, the Bees rebounded, handling the Warriors 189-209 as Dec led the individual race once again, shooting a two-under-par 34.

With his 37, Glavin tied Liverpool’s Spencer Baum for second place, while Shipman and Pompo both posted 39 and Petragnani’s 40 matched that of the Warriors’ Dylan Husted and Pat Langlois. Ianno shot a 43, ahead of Carter Nichols (44) and Evan Pavetto-Stewart (45).

All of this left B’ville at 4-2, behind F-M and West Genesee in the SCAC Metro standings.  It faces the Wildcats (who ended C-NS Blue’s win streak right after it beat the Bees) this Thursday after a Tuesday match against Syracuse.