At the least, the Hamilton baseball team knew that its defense of the Section III Class D title would not be a brief one.
As the no. 9 seed, the Emerald Knights survived a harrowing finish to beat no. 8 seed Sackets Harbor 10-8 in Tuesday’s opening round, setting up a shot at top seed New York Mills in the quarterfinals.
Meanwhile, in the Class B tournament, Canastota backed up its no. 4 seed by eliminating no. 12 seed Mount Markham 10-6, earning the right to host no. 12 Utica-Notre Dame in the next round.
All the post-season experience gained by Hamilton in its 2009 run allowed for a smooth start against Sackets, and also allowed it to weather the rough part later on.
Down 1-0, the Emerald Knights got to the Patriots for three runs in both the third and fourth innings to move out in front. Another three-run outburst in the sixth, plus a seventh-inning tally, made it 10-3 going into the bottom of the seventh. Lucas Rhyde, with a home run, stolen base and two RBIs, led the offense.
Don Philhower took that big lead into the seventh — and almost didn’t get out. Poor Hamilton defense (it committed seven errors) had been an issue all day, and more mistakes led to Sackets producing five runs before Philhower could record the final out.
With Canastota, the crisis came early, as Mount Markham, familiar with the Raiders from two regular-season meetings, scored first in the third inning, then chased starting pitcher Jeff Merrell through a four-run rally in the top of the fourth.
That seemed to alert the Raiders — for in the bottom of the fourth, everyone came to the plate and seven runs came home, putting Canastota ahead for good. A three-run fifth inning followed.
Sam Stagnitti led the rally, his pair of hits leading to four RBIs as Merrell drove in two runs and Jeff LaBarre added a double. Billy Marsh relieved Merrell in the fifth, and he settled things down before Alex Foster went the last two innings for the save.
Unlike their colleagues, Morrisville-Eaton’s softball team did not survive its opening test, losing in the Class C-2 opening round to Onondaga 15-3. Four different times, the Tigers had three or more runs in an inning as the Warriors got all three of its tallies in the sixth, by which point OCS was safe.
