In its long-term plans, the East Syracuse-Minoa baseball team wanted to reclaim the Section III Class A title it earned just three years ago.
Taking the first step in that process, the no. 5 seed Spartans ousted no. 12 seed Camden 12-6 in last Tuesday’s opening round of the Class A playoffs, just as no. 7 seed Jamesville-DeWitt saw its championship dreams dashed in a 13-8, eight-inning loss to no. 10 seed Chittenango.
ESM’s Mikey Para produced a sterling all-around effort to put Camden away. In five trips to the plate, Para had four hits and a walk, including a double and three singles, on his way to five RBIs as he scored a trio of runs.
In support, Jake Fletcher drove in three runs and scored twice, while Billy Sullivan earned two hits and an RBI. Joe Greco and Peter Gigliotti drove in runs, too, as Mat Placito scored twice.
ESM bolted to a 6-0 lead through four innings. The Blue Devils closed within 6-4 in the top of the fifth before the Sparatns used six runs in the bottom of the sixth to get away.
Para went four innings, but gave way to Fletcher in the top of the fifth as he went the rest of the way to earn the win, not allowing a walk in three innings while striking out two.
J-D, in its first-round game with Chittenango (with whom it split two regular-season meetings), made a late-game comeback, with some timely help along the way.
Once down 7-3, the Red Rams began to rally in the bottom of the fifth thanks to Eric Thompson’s solo home run and Mike Gianni’s double, as Gianni later scored on a sacrifice fly.
Two more runs in the sixth (both coming off doubles from Mick Cariseo and Thompson) came after the Bears scored once in the top of that frame, making it 8-7 going into the bottom of the seventh.
With two out, and Josh Paduano on third base representing the tying run, Eric Schwartz stepped up against Chittenango pitcher Greg Jasek.
Schwartz popped up, right to the mound, and threw his bat down in disgust as he ran it out. Meanwhile, no Bears infielder called off Jasek, who put up his glove to make the game-ending catch — and dropped the ball.
Paduano had crossed the plate by now, and J-D suddenly had new life with an 8-8 tie. Even Justin Marzella hitting into an innning-ending force play did not keep Rams partisans from thinking that it could now pull it out.
But the Bears did not panic. Instead, it batted around in the top of the eighth against Schwartz (who had relieved Marzella in the top of the fourth) and scored five runs, abruptly ending J-D’s season with a 10-11 mark.
