To say that the Marcellus and Skaneateles baseball teams had a busy time in the week after returning from spring break would be a slight understatement.
At the end of that week, the Mustangs and Lakers faced each other last Friday, with Marcellus coming out on top in a 14-4 decision.
Fresh off a crushing 20-3 win over Christian Brothers Academy the day before, the Mustangs continued to pound it against Skaneaetles, even if it took a while to take over.
The Lakers led, 2-1, after one inning, and though Marcellus tied it, an exchange of fourth-inning runs made it 4-4 going into the top of the fifth.
From that point forward, the Mustangs ruled, putting up 10 unanswered runs over the course of the fifth, sixth and seventh innings off Laker pitchers Jake Rothenberg, Nick Pesarchick and Zach Augustine.
John Quick led Marcellus with three RBIs. John Marrs and Scott Castle each drove in two runs, while Dan Zdanowski tripled and earned an RBI and Tyler Nowak also drove in a run. Zdanowski also got the win on the mound as Dan Heil excelled in a long relief stint. Augustine, with a triple and two RBIs, set the pace for the Skaneateles offense.
Marcellus began its week of action last Monday with an impressive non-league effort against Onondaga, shutting out the Tigers 9-0.
Heil pitched the whole way, allowing just five hits. The Mustangs broke it open with seven runs in the top of the sixth inning, and was helped all game long by the fact that OCS committed seven errors. Quick and Jeff Crysler each finished with two RBIs as Zdanowski, Marrs, Bill Walter, and Tim Reynolds each drove in one run.
Back home on Wednesday afternoon, Marcellus ran right into heavy OHSL Liberty division favorite Westhill and witnessed a power display during a 15-8 loss to the Warriors.
Quick, Zdanowski and Nowak all took turns pitching, but couldn’t keep Westhill from unloading four home runs, two of them off the bat of Ryan Malley, who finished with six RBIs.
Marcellus got most of its runs in the fifth and sixth innings as Marrs and Nowak each picked up three hits and combined for five RBIs. Heil and Reynolds drove in one run apiece.
Turning it completely around on Thursday afternoon, the Mustangs cooled down CBA with a 20-3 rout that served as a warning for what it could produce.
Marcellus got at least three runs in five of the first six innings, a continual hitting display that eventually produced 23 hits, two of them home runs by Zdanowski and Adam Szymanski.
Overall, Szymanski had four RBIs, as Reynolds and Heil drove in three runs apiece. Marrs, Crysler and Scott Cotter each drove in two runs, as winning pitcher Joe Cornish also had an RBI.
With a late comeback and a little help from the opposition, the Lakers pulled out last Monday’s game against Jordan-Elbridge, beating the Eagles 7-6.
On the mound, Rothenberg gave up five runs in the second and third innings, but settled down enough to keep Skaneateles in it.
However, in the bottom of the sixth inning, the Lakers still trailed, 5-3, before getting two runs and tying it, 5-5. With Dan Sherbeneau poised in scoring position in the bottom of the seventh, J-E dropped a routine fly ball, and Sherbeneau came home with the winning run.
To win, Skaneateles overcame five errors, which led to most of J-E’s runs. Jared Amory and Brandon Mercado each had one RBI.
Skaneateles then got smacked around Tuesday in a 14-1 loss to CBA. Jim Pittman’s seventh-inning RBI prevented a shutout, but three Laker pitchers –Pesarchick, Augustine and Sean Cooney — gave up 16 hits between them.
Though Wednesday’s game with Cazenovia proved much closer, Skaneateles still ended up on the wrong end of a 5-1 decision.
Jake Bird pitched quite well until the top of the fourth inning, when the eastern Lakers got three runs to break it open. All the western Lakers could manage was three hits off Cazenovia pitchers Mike Blanchard and Will Moore. Augustine drove in his team’s lone run.
This followed an April 19 trip to Honeoye Falls-Lima (Section V), where a big early lead got away in an 11-10 defeat.
Four-run outbursts in the first and second innings gave Skaneateles an 8-0 lead, but HF-L erased it with seven runs in the bottom of the fourth.
The Lakers pushed back, taking a 10-9 lead in the fifth inning. HF-L again answered, tying it in the bottom of the fifth and winning it with a seventh-inning tally.
Augustine, pitching in relief of Sherbeneau, took the loss. Cooney and Phil Weiss each drove in two runs, as Devlen Murphy doubled.
Skaneateles and Marcellus hope to have a rematch on Friday — if the weather improves. Rain already caused a postponement of the Mustangs’ Monday meeting with Cazenovia and threatened Wednesday’s appointment with Hannibal as Skaneateles was set to face Tully and Solvay.
