In their own ways, a trio of area high school baseball teams found wildly varying results once they were back on the diamonds after the early-week rains.
Bishop Grimes had the best time of it, starting out last Wednesday by going to Phoenix and waiting until the late stages for the bats to come to life in a 14-0 romp of the Firebirds.
Even one run in the second inning was enough for pitcher Joe Wike, who held Phoenix to five hits and two walks while striking out nine, but he had to wait a while to feel comfortable.
It was 1-0 when the Cobras struck for three runs in the sixth and then piled up 10 runs in the seventh. Wike, Matt Tarby and David Cifonelli each had three RBIs as Dalton Damuth drove in two runs. Ben Rivett, Jeff Dargiewicz and Devon Desiro-Camber each had one RBI.
Again Grimes reached double digits on the scoreboard in Thursday’s game at Marcellus, overcoming a slow start to defeat the Mustangs 10-5 for its seventh win in a row.
A four-run fourth inning erased an early 2-0 Marcellus lead, and three runs followed in each of the next two innings. Cifonelli’s pair of hits led to four RBIs, with Seth Murphy driving in three runs as Wike scored three times.
Fayetteville-Manlius had its first two games with West Genesee pushed back to late in the week, but on Wednesday it made up a previously rained-out game with Liverpool and lost, 7-0, to the Warriors.
All that the Hornets could manage was four hits off Liverpool ace Luke Harder, who was helped when his team scored five times off Tom Coleman in the top of the first. Shane Hazelmeyer led the Warriors with three hits, two of them doubles, and two RBIs.
Then the series with West Genesee started on Thursday, and F-M got a tremendous performance on the mound by Max Parker that produced a 1-0 victory over the Wildcats.
Parker limited WG to four hits, striking out eight, while Wildcats counterpart Ryan Paige matched him until the bottom of the fifth, when the Hornets got the lone run it needed, scored by Ben Delmarsh.
As to the rest of the series, F-M lost the second game 8-5, even though, trailing 3-0, it had rallied for five runs in the bottom of the fifth, Delmarsh driving in two of those runs to go with his pair of hits.
Joe Gaeta pitched 4 2/3 innings, yet it did not lead to a win, with WG netting four runs in the top of the sixth to go in front. Jake DePalma (three RBIs) and Chris Bonacci (two hits, three runs scored) paced the Wildcats.
The third game was the best of all, dragging out to nine innings before F-M lost, 5-4, to a West Genesee side that had won three previous extra-inning decisions against league foes this spring.
The Hornets scored three times in the third inning, only to have WG answer with three runs in the fourth and fifth innings, and that 3-3 tie remained through the end of regulation.
In the top of the eighth, F-M went back in front, 4-3, but could not get the final three outs, the Wildcats pulling even again, 4-4, and then winning it with a run an inning later.
John Arold took the loss, having pitched four innings of relief after Itai Spinoza started. Delmarsh, Sean O’Connor, Seth Reisman and John Egnaczyk had one RBI apiece.
