Thursday night’s Section III Class A baseball championship game at NBT Bank Stadium will also determine whether Christian Brothers Academy or Jamesville-DeWitt will rule the neighborhood.
In Monday’s Class A semifinals at Onondaga Community College, the no. 3 seed Brothers and no. 4 seed Red Rams both prevailed, as CBA took out no. 2 seed New Hartford 7-2 and J-D cast aside no. 8 seed Camden 3-1.
Without a sectional title since 2007, CBA, in order to get a chance at ending that dry spell, had to beat a New Hartford side that once held the top spot in the state rankings, but whom the Brothers beat 2-1 in nine innings just eight days earlier at a tournament in Utica.
Wasting little time, CBA used a walk, single and two groundouts to produce a run off New Hartford ace Mark Chanatry in the top of the first inning, only to have the Spartans answer in the bottom of the second to tie it, 1-1.
The first big play came in the bottom of the third, when Chanatry doubled to the gap, only to get thrown out trying to stretch it to a triple, the relay throw going from Tim Corapi in center field to shortstop Webb Little to Tom Benz, who tagged out Chanatry at third.
Right after that, the Brothers went in front for good. With two out and two on in the top of the fourth, Sam Little tripled to the gap, scoring both runners, and then raced home on Chanatry’s wild pitch.
CBA extended the lead to 5-1 in the fifth, but the Spartans nearly made it up in the bottom of the fifth, cutting the gap to 5-2 and loading the bases with two outs.
Then Brian Verbickas hit a ball to the right-field gap. On a dead run, Mike Trasolini tracked it down and caught it, preventing a bases-clearing extra-base hit that likely would have tied the game.
Instead, CBA added to that lead in the top of the sixth when, with one on, Webb Little sent a line drive over the right-field fence for a two-run home run.
Tim Pierret pitched a complete game, striking out seven Spartans and retiring the last six in a row after Trasolini’s game-saving catch.
Right after that, it was J-D’s turn on the diamond, facing a Camden team that stunned top seed Watertown 12-5 in the Class A quarterfinals two days earlier and was looking to spring another big surprise.
Camden pitcher Nick Melchiore’s first-inning ground-rule double and Matt Critelli’s RBI single in the top of the first got the Blue Devils in front, 1-0.
Then Melchiore set out to quiet the potent Rams lineup, and did so for two innings, needing to be good since Chris McGee settled down and retired seven in a row through the third inning.
In the end, it wasn’t Melchiore’s pitching that hurt Camden (he only surrendered five hits), so much as it was the same defense that had rescued CBA earlier in the day.
In the bottom of the third, J-D put two runners on with one out, thanks to a pair of Camden infield errors, and Sam Crisalli made them pay for it, sending a double to the wall that scored Xander Ferlenda and Paul Fitzgibbons.
Alex Way led off the fourth with a triple, and one pitch later Tom Canfield’s grounder scored Way, extending J-D’s lead to 3-1.
McGee gave up seven hits, but every time Camden threatened to catch up, he responded with a clutch strikeout (seven overall), going the route to set up the showdown with CBA.
