Heading toward the end of April, the Jamesville-DeWitt and East Syracuse-Minoa baseball teams both find themselves in strong form.
And at the end of a particularly good week, the Red Rams saw pitcher Chris McGee throw a no-hitter on Saturday afternoon in his team’s 13-0 shutout over Bishop Ludden.
McGee allowed three walks, but kept the Gaelic Knights hitless as he amassed 10 strikeouts, and had a large role in the run support, too, getting a single, double and triple and finishing with five RBIs while scoring three times.
All of this started in the bottom of the second inning, when J-D earned four runs. A five-run third and four-run fourth inning followed, with Xander Ferlenda hitting a home run and gaining three RBIs and Jimmy Sinopoli tripling and driving in three runs.
Two days earlier, the Rams made quite a statement when it went to Cortland and, led by Sam Crisalli’s strong effort on the mound, shut out the defending Class A champion Purple Tigers 3-0.
They were still at 0-0 when, in the top of the third inning, J-D got to Cortland pitcher Quinn Kennedy for all of its runs. McGee and John Werbowsky each earned an RBI as McGee, Alex Way and Tom Canfield crossed the plate.
Crisalli did the rest, constantly frustrating Cortland’s batters. He overcame four hits and two errors to strike out four, limiting the Purple Tigers to a single walk. Kennedy took the loss despite limiting J-D to six hits, three of them from McGree.
J-D also proved impressive in last Monday’s 11-1 victory over Vernon-Verona-Sherrill, taking over in a first inning where it batted around and scored six runs to chase Red Devils starter Zach Durant from the game.
McGee went four-for-five, driving in three runs. Crisalli managed two hits, two runs scored and three RBIs, while Jake Binder doubled and earned a pair of RBIs. Five Red Rams pitchers combined on a three-hit effort as Crisalli, McGee, Binder, Sinopoli and Kyle Naugle saw mound stints.
But the Red Rams scored even more runs in Tuesday’s 21-2 destruction of Chittenango, getting all of them in five innings as it scored at least three times in each frame, including a six-run outburst in the bottom of the second.
J-D finished with 25 hits from 13 different players, including a home run from Paul Fitzgibbons. Dylan McGee led with four hits, while Werbowsky’s two hits led to a team-high four RBIs. Way had two doubles as he, along with McGee, Fitzgibbons, Binder and Chris McGee, drove in a pair of runs. Sinopoli scored three runs.
East Syracuse-Minoa lost, 8-5, to Homer, rallying from a 4-1 deficit to score four runs in the bottom of the fifth, only to see that 5-4 lead quickly vanish when the Trojans put together its own four-run rally in the top of the sixth.
Brandon Breen still managed a pair of RBIs, with Dan Williams, Matt Barbini and Greg Fingar also driving in runs against Homer ace Jake Casey, who had 11 strikeouts.
Breen pitched for ESM until the fifth, but three relievers could not contain the Trojans as Matt Hunter took the loss. Conner Simonetta led Homer with two doubles and three RBIs.
The Spartans would play Marcellus on Thursday and edge the Mustangs 8-7 in nine innings, squandering a 4-2 lead in regulation but rallying to tie it, 6-6, sending it to extra frames.
In the ninth, Marcellus went back in front 7-6, but ESM came back one more time, putting across the tying and winning runs to prevail.
Fingar led the Spartans with a pair of RBIs. Breen and Nick Pullano each had two hits and one RBI, while Daren Dunnewold, Nick Cesarini, Sam LeGro and Isaiah Lopez also drove in runs. Shane Krawec pitched four innings of relief and earned the win after stints from Cesarini and Pullano.
ESM, who lost 6-0 to Bishop Grimes on Thursday, had a rematch with Marcellus Friday, this time going to eight innings – and winning again in a tense 1-0 decision.
For seven regulation frames, neither side could get a run. Fingar pitched and stayed in there for the eighth, maintaining the shutout (he allowed five hits and struck out six), and finally getting the support he needed when Breen, who had two hits, doubled home Nick Castrello with the decisive run in the bottom of the eighth.
