Six different Baldwinsville boys tennis players reached semifinal rounds during the Section III Class A tournament at Syracuse University’s SkyTop Courts.
However, Grady Schmidt and Alessandro Nieves was the only one to reach the finals, in third doubles, beating Cicero-North Syracuse’s tandem of Jim Howe and Dave Novitzki 6-1, 6-2.
Schmidt and Nieves didn’t stop there, either, moving on to win the championship against Daniel Jee and Michael Kaplan (Fayetteville-Manlius) in a 7-5, 6-0 decision.
This proved the highlight of the Bees’ second-place effort, as it finished with 42 points, trailing only F-M, who won with 56 points.
Matt Funicello played in first singles, reaching the semifinals before Matt Izant (Fayetteville-Manlius) beat him 6-3, 6-2. Funicello would get third place, though, as he beat Liverpool’s Mike Schneider in a 6-1, 3-6, 6-0 decision.
Ben Weiss advanced to the second singles semifinals, only to fall to Jake West (Fulton) 6-3, 6-4. He also lost the consolation match to Matt Randall (Oswego) 6-3, 6-3.
Dan Kot and Tom Hamm, teaming up in first doubles, took a 6-3, 6-0 defeat to F-M’s duo of Vikram and Vivek Nayer. But in the consolation match against Jay Tinklepaugh and Brad Shepard (West Genesee), Hamm and Kott won a 6-4, 6-2 decision.
