A good sign for any baseball team is how it deals with defeat, because everyone, including the best sides, will have bad showings.
Fayetteville-Manlius had taken some mid-season losses, but it didn’t seem to bother the Hornets one bit as it entered a stretch where it needed to play five times in as many days to make up for bad weather – and somehow won them all.
It all started last Monday afternoon with a trip to Oswego, which proved quite fun for F-M as it piled up runs and pummeled the Bucccaneers 17-2.
It was 6-0 by the second inning, but the Hornets were far from content, tacking on single runs in the next two frames before erupting for seven runs in the top of the fifth.
Josh Loeffler and Travis Macrides led F-M with three RBIs apiecer. Taylor Smach hit a home run as he, along with Nate Olson and Mitch Hoalcraft, earned two RBIs apiece. Mike Hoalcraft, Nate Kelder and Matt Truman drove in one run apiece as Jackson Wheeler pitched 5 1/3 innings, holding Oswego to five hits and striking out five.
Then F-M hosted Auburn on Tuesday afternoon, where the team’s most pleasant surprise, John Schurman, struck again and threw the Hornets’ first complete game of the season as it earned a 4-2 victory over the Maroons.
Even with a basketball scholarship to Binghamton University waiting for him, Schurman came out for baseball this spring after not playing the sport for four years, and he’s proven invaluable, going 3-0 in a mix of starting and relief stints before he took the mound against Auburn.
Here, Schurman had his best stuff, blanking the Maroons through six innings as F-M helped him with runs in the third and fifth innings, plus two more in the sixth. Mike Hoalcraft tripled and drove in two runs, with Macrides and Anthony Nucerino adding one RBI apiece.
Then it nearly fell apart. Auburn loaded the bases in the seventh and used Erik Baim’s two-run single to cut the Hornets’ 4-0 lead in half. Again, the Maroons loaded the bases with two out, but Schurman coaxed Brandon Fasce to pop out to end the game.
All of this led to Wednesday’s first-place showdown with state Class AA no. 11-ranked West Genesee, the first of two scheduled meetings between the league leaders in four days. The first one proved exciting enough, with F-M rallying late, and then hanging on to beat the Wildcats 7-6.
Mike Hoalcraft took his turn on the mound and had early struggles, WG leaping to a 4-2 lead through two innings. From there, Hoalcraft settled down, ultimately 5 2/3 innings and holding the Wildcats to five hits as he waited for some help.
And that help came in the sixth, when F-M, still trailing 4-3, knocked out Wildcats starter Bailey Gauthier and got four runs to take a 7-4 lead. A tense finish followed as, in the bottom of the seventh, WG scored twice off reliever Sean Brown, but Brown managed to earn the final out.
F-M had just six hits, two of them by Nucerino, who drove in a pair of runs. Loeffler reached base three times and scored three runs, while Olson added an RBI.
F-M had two more games to worry about, starting last Thursday with a 2-0 shutout over Syracuse East. Loeffler lasted four innings, holding East to one hit and striking out five, before Brown went the rest of the way in relief, surrendering two hits. But they kept East off the board.
Meanwhile, F-M stayed patient and, in the second and fifth innings, notched single runs off East pitcher Damon Ozelek. Brown scored a run and drove in another, while Mitch Hoalcraft gained the other run and Ben Napierala added an RBI.
Now the Hornets had to go to Central Square on Friday to face a Red Hawks team Baldwinsville beat 23-4 the day before. But this one was anything but easy, F-M having to make yet another comeback to prevail by a score of 5-4.
An early exchange of runs left the Hornets trailing, 4-3, through two innings. It stayed that way until the fourth, when F-M pulled even, 4-4, seeing pitcher Zach Rhea settle down after his early struggles as Rhea helped his own cause with a pair of RBIs and Mike Hoalcraft scored twice.
Then, with two out in the top of the seventh, Macrides singled and promptly stole second base. Mitch Hoalcraft then drilled a single that brought home Macrides with the go-ahead run, and Rhea managed to get the final three outs, saving the bullpen from even more duty.
F-M almost had a sixth game in a row Saturday, but heavy overnight rains forced a postponement of the rematch with West Genesee, who had also played five straight days but had gone 3-2, including losses to the Hornets and Liverpool.
Unlike the early portion of this season, F-M (12-3) welcomed the rainout, the players getting much-needed rest before it turned to a homestretch that included two other regular-season rematches, against Cicero-North Syracuse and Liverpool.
