Jamesville-DeWitt’s baseball team had all kinds of difficulty with one of its neighbors this spring, but not the other.
Swept by CBA in two head-to-head-meetings, the Red Rams turned around and did the exact same thing to East Syracuse-Minoa, capping it with last Monday’s 7-2 victory over the Spartans.
For a long while, the rematch mirrored J-D’s 2-1 win in the first meeting on April 16. Runs were not plentiful as ESM scored in the first and fourth innings, only to have the Rams get a pair of runs in its half of the fourth. Then, with the game tied 2-2 in the fifth, J-D broke through, scoring four times against Spartan pitcher Steve Brownell.
Paul Fitzgibbons led the push, getting two hits, including a double, and finishing with three RBIs. Jimmy Sinopoli, Brad Kogut, Nick Austin and John Werbowky each had one RBI. Dan Canfield walked twice and came around to score a pair of runs.
Chris McGee had a patient outing on the mound, holding ESM to three hits and two walks while striking out four. In defeat, the Spartans’ Cameron Lawless earned an RBI.
Both played again on Wednesday, and both won in varying manners, J-D needing to unleash lots of offense in a 14-5 rout of Fulton and ESM getting a gem from pitcher Greg Fingar in topping Phoenix 3-1.
For the Red Rams, trouble came early as Fulton scored four times in the top of the first and led 5-0 by the second inning. But J-D scored a run in that frame and, in the bottom of the third, batted around and got six runs to pull in front.
Sinopoli had three hits, including a double, and produced three RBIs. Werbowky added two hits, scoring twice and driving in two runs. Canfield scored four times as he, along with Kogut, Matt Yonta and Brendan Schunck each had one RBI. Alex Way pitched 5 1/3 innings for the win, striking out six.
When ESM went to Phoenix, it got all of its runs in the top of the second as Jordan Barton, Steve Macko and Casey Taylor each earned an RBI. Barton and Casey Sullivan had two hits apiece.
Other than allowing the Firebirds’ lone tally in the bottom of the second, Fingar proved stingy, earning five strikeouts and overcoming six hits and three walks to prevail.
Back home on Thursday, the Spartans lost to Bishop Ludden 7-4, unable to recover from the Gaelic Knights’ four-run first-inning against ESM pitcher Steve Macko.
And the deficit grew to 7-0 before the Spartans got on the board in the sixth. Belatedly, ESM tried to rally, with three more runs in the bottom of the seventh as Brownell, Lawless and Steve Loder drove in runs, but Ludden held on.
ESM also took an 8-0 defeat to Chittenango Friday in the game made up from last Tuesday’s rainout. All the Spartans could manage was three hits, while Sullivan got into quick trouble when the Bears score four first-inning runs to take control.
J-D, meanwhile, made it three straight wins by rallying past Cortland 6-3. The Purple Tigers got to Yonta for all of its runs in the bottom of the first inning.
Staring at a 3-0 deficit, J-D scored a run in the second and sprinted out in front with three runs in the top of the fourth and two more runs in the fifth. Canfield, Werbowsky and Nick Austin each had one RBI as Canfield scored twice and the Rams took advantage of four Cortland errors.
Yonta, meanwhile, settled down and was close to untouchable after the Purple Tigers’ early push. He gave up just two hits and one walk, earning 11 strikeouts as J-D improved to 11-6 on the season.
