In a year full of accomplishment, honors and accolades for Baldwinsville’s baseball program, head coach Dave Penafeather received another one this week.
As part of the spring ‘Believe to Achieve’ awards handed out by the Syracuse Sports Corporation, Penafeather was given the Coaches Award in a ceremony on Thursday at Alliance Bank Stadium.
That was only appropriate, given that Penafeather’s Bees earned its first Section III Class AA title since 2004 at Alliance Bank Stadium in late May, beating Fayetteville-Manlius 10-3.
B’ville went on to win the regional final against Columbia 6-1 off a brilliant pitching effort from left-hander Scott Orr, earning a berth in the state final four at NYSEG Stadium in Binghamton, where it lost a semifinal thriller to Victor 5-4 after erasing a three-run deficit in the seventh inning to tie it.
That only began a memorable summer for the B’ville baseball program.
Five stars from that team – Brett Charbonneau, Gabe Levanti, Scott Blewett, Pat Merryweather and Josh Savacool – would help the Onondaga team win the Babe Ruth World Series in Weimar, Texas, with Charbonneau the tournament MVP and Blewett the winning pitcher in the final, where he struck out 15.
