Each April, the school break offers the area’s high school baseball teams a chance to escape capricious Central New York weather for what they hope is a full week of games in warm, sunny conditions.
Baldwinsville, the reigning Section III Class AA champions, would go to the Disney Wide World of Sports complex in Florida, where it had a fair amount of success – but saved something spectacular for when it returned home.
Late on Saturday afternoon, Bees pitching ace Jason Savacool took to the mound against Auburn and promptly threw a no-hitter as B’ville defeated the Maroons 4-0.
This was Savacool’s second start of the season, having gone five innings, walking five while striking out eight, in an 8-2 win over Whitney Young (Illinois) in the opener of the Disney tournament a week earlier.
Auburn entered the game with a 2-2 mark, but none of its batters could do much against Savacool, who struck out 16 of them and only used 85 pitches, 62 of them strikes, to spin his gem.
B’ville took pressure off Savacool with a pair of first-inning runs off Maroons starter Ryan Birchard, adding single runs in the second and fourth innings. Pat May, Nate Ray and Michael Carni each drove in runs as May tripled and Griffin Seeber doubled.
Back in the April 13 game between B’ville and Whitney Young, a two-run first inning set the tone, and the Bees added five runs in the top of the second. Savacool’s pair of hits led to four RBIs to augment his pitching as Mike Carr worked the last two innings in relief.
The Bees finished with 15 hits, and each player in the lineup got at least one hit. May scored three runs and Ray got two RBIs as they, along with Carni and Jeb Farneth, had two hits apiece.
Against Harriton (Pennsylvania) two days later, B’ville won another 8-2 decision, overcoming a 1-0 deficit to the Rams with a five-run second inning to establish control, then adding three runs in the bottom of the fourth.
With, among others, Syracuse University women’s basketball coach Quentin Hillsman in attendance, the Bees got four innings from pitcher Jake Marshall, who walked eight, but struck out six before Mike Carr worked the rest of the way in relief.
Pat Anson was the star at the plate, going four-for-four and driving in a run. RBIs also went to May, Savacool, Carni, Kenny Svitak and Lucas Robinson and Savacool scored twice.
B’ville occupied the no. 12 spot in the first state Class AA rankings of the spring, behind no. 8-ranked Liverpool, whom it meets in a series this week after the Warriors lost twice in games at Myrtle Beach during the school break.
