Whether the Christian Brothers Academy and Jamesville-DeWitt baseball teams are headed for an epic showdown in the Section III Class A playoffs, both sides are in fine late-season form.
The state Class A no. 7-ranked Brothers entered last week 12-2, and improved on that mark once the rain stopped as it pulled away late on Wednesday for a 13-5 victory over Cazenovia.
Though it struggled early, CBA broke out of a 4-4 tie with three runs in the bottom of the third inning, and put the game away by batting around in the sixth and scoring six runs.
Kent Wilson and Tommy Marzullo each doubled and drove in three runs. Mike Schaefer and Jason Boule matched each other with three hits and two RBIs as M.P. Geiss and Anthony Marsallo also drove in runs.
Joey Marsallo pitched, going five innings to earn the win as he got eight strikeouts to overcome 10 hits allowed. Geiss and Anthony Marsallo each tossed one scoreless inning of relief.
Even more impressive was Saturday’s 4-1 victory over Class AA contender Liverpool, a game where Boule and Geiss pitched and combined to hold the Warriors to five hits.
Yet it wasn’t rewarded until the Brothers broke out of a 1-1 tie when it scored three times in the top of the seventh, Wilson’s double the big blow as he drove got three RBIs, Derek Jann driving in the other run.
J-D was no. 11 in those same state rankings, sitting at 13-3 when it faced Cortland last Thursday afternoon. And two big rallies were all the Red Rams needed to defeat the Purple Tigers 9-3.
A three-run third inning was all that pitcher A.J. Ortega needed as he lasted 6 2/3 innings on the mound, amassing 10 strikeouts before Nolan Giblin picked up the final out.
Still, with J-D clinging to a 3-2 lead, it needed a six-run outburst in the bottom of the sixth to break the game open. Giblin got three RBIs, with Mateo Santos driving in two runs. Shane Wright and Nick Brotzki had one RBI apiece.
Yet the happy feelings did not even last 24 hours, for when J-D and Cortland met again on Friday, the Purple Tigers blanked the Red Rams 10-0.A six-run second inning was all Cortland needed as pitcher Caleb Thompson quieted J-D’s bats, only allowing one hit – to Brotzki – while striking out 10.
East Syracuse Minoa struggled in Wednesday’s game against Syracuse, taking a 7-4 defeat as a four-run second inning put Syracuse in charge and it added single runs in the third, fifth and seventh innings.
The Spartans got two hits and two RBis from Brendan Seburn. Hunter Borkowski took the loss, with Ben Leib and Spencer Carnival seeing long relief stints as Devon Lamanna went four-for-four for Syracuse, scoring three runs.
But the Spartans rebounded by sweeping two games on Thursday, first edging Oswego 2-1 as it led 1-0 until the seventh inning, when the Buccaneers tied it, only to have ESM win it by getting its own run in the bottom of the seventh.
Bryce Hall pitched quite well, holding Oswego to four hits in a complete-game effort as Tim Kirwan got a complete game for the Bucs. Leib and Borkowski scored the runs.
Later that day, ESM won over Central Square 7-1 with another pitching gem, this time from the duo of Dan Garris and Sean Welch as Garris went four innings and Welch three, the pair combining to hold the Redhawks to five hits.
Even with that, it required the Spartans to erupt for six runs in the bottom of the fourth to break up a 1-1 tie. Colin Williams drove in two of those runs, with RBIs also going to Leib, Seburn and Josh Gilkey, who scored twice.
The rematch with Central Square Friday was a wild one, but ESM again prevailed in a 15-12 slugfest where it fell behind 7-1 largely on the basis of the Redhawks’ five-run rally in the second.
But ESM batted around in the top of the fifth and scored eight times to grab a 9-7 lead, only to have Central Square stage its own comeback and move back in front, 12-10, heading into the seventh inning.
Just like the day before, though, the Spartans won in its last at-bat, notching five runs in the top of the seventh and getting Carnival to toss a scoreless frame in relief to help his side hang on.
ESM was helped by six Redhawks errors as Gilkey got three RBIs, with Leib doubling and driving in two runs. Seburn, Grabowski, Williams and Justin Kingsley also drove in runs as Central Square wasted Derek Schumaker’s two doubles and six RBIs.
