Even as the Baldwinsville baseball team was steadily building a win streak through the middle part of the regular season, a vital piece of the long-term plan was in question.
Scott Blewett, the Bees’ right-handed pitching ace, was injured April 29 in a 15-5 win at Liverpool when sliding into a base. It caused him to miss a start and a week of action.
But Blewett was healed by the time the Bees visited Falcon Park for last Monday’s game at Auburn, and while not starting, his strong appearance out of the bullpen locked down a 7-2 victory over the Maroons, the team’s fifth in a row.
Brett DeLola got the start, and though he surrendered a run in the second inning, he mostly kept Auburn in check, waiting for some more run support.
It arrived in the fourth inning, when B’ville batted around and picked up five decisive runs, two of them brought home on Pat Merryweather’s single. Two Maroons errors prolonged the rally.
With that lead, B’ville brought in Blewett. With a fastball that touched 88 miles per hour, the right-hander faced nine batters and struck out six of them. Overall, Auburn got just three hits off DeLola and Blewett.
Rained out of Wednesday’s game with Syracuse West, the Bees were idle until Friday, when it provided its biggest power display of the season in the course of an 11-1 victory over the Oswego Buccaneers.
Not only did B’ville score at least twice in five of the first six innings against three Oswego pitchers (Tom Dillon went five innings and took the loss), it kept hitting balls over the fence.
Four different players – Josh Savacool, Jimmy Schmidt, Colin Conklin and Jake Norton – connected for home runs, Schmidt adding three other hits and finishing with four RBIs as Conklin drove in three runs. Savacool and Zach Leo, who finished with three hits, managed two RBIs apiece.
All of this provided plenty of help to Casey McAllister, who pitched five solid innings, striking out six and limiting the Bucs to six hits. Conklin went the rest of the way in relief.
And this sets up a big final week of the regular season, which starts Monday at 12-4 West Genesee and concludes with a pair of games next Saturday against Binghamton and St. Joseph’s (Buffalo).
Most of all, it features the much-anticipated clash between B’ville and state no. 2-ranked Cicero-North Syracuse next Wednesday night at Gillette Field. The Northstars won their first meeting 10-4 on April 25, and the Bees want to even things up as the Section III Class AA playoffs loom next week.
