Though the Baldwinsville boys golf team could not keep up with its top rivals in the battle for team honors at Wednesday’s Section III Class AA tournament at the Links at Sunset Ridge, the trio of Matt Monaco, Eion Tierney and Carson Hayes earned advancement to the state qualifier late in the spring.
Amid the season’s toughest conditions, Monaco and Tierney both shot 80, finishing in a tie for 10th place, while Hayes posted an 85, right on the number needed to move ahead.
In many ways, the regular season helped prepare B’ville for this challenge. Having a tough home course at Timber Banks helped, as did road matches in venues such as Woodcrest, where Fayetteville-Manlius plays, and Highland, where Auburn has home matches.
Yet B’ville, and everyone else with a fall schedule in Section III boys golf, got to play amid benign weather through most of the campaign, whether it was warm temperatures, or abundant sunshine, or low breezes.
All of that changed at Sunset Ridge. When 134 golfers teed off at 9 a.m. Wednesday morning, they did so amid winds that gusted past 25 miles per hour and temperatures that failed to reach 60 degrees. It even rained for a short time early in the afternoon, and falling leaves on all 18 greens made putting a tougher task, too.
As a result, no golfer broke Sunset Ridge’s par of 72. And only one even got close – CBA’s Jack Bellardini, who pieced together a five-birdie, four-bogey 73 to win individual medalist honors by four shots over F-M’s Andrew Massa and Auburn’s Trevor Hogan.
Behind them, just seven shots separated all of the golfers that would earn spots in the sectional state qualifier, set for late May at Colgate University’s Seven Oaks course.
That included Monaco, Tierney and Hayes, though only Monaco and Hayes were part of the Class AA team competition, where B’ville, with a total of 432, finished fifth out of eight sides.
F-M repeated as sectional team champions, putting up a 406 to hold off Auburn (414), Cicero-North Syracuse Blue (416) and West Genesee (418) for that top spot ahead of the Bees.
Among the other B’ville golfers at the sectional tournament, Hunter Cohen-Ciampichini got closest to reaching the state qualifier, finishing with an 87, which was two shots too many. James Pelcher, with an 88, was one stroke behind Cohen-Ciampichini, while Tim Garaffo earned a 92 and Ryan Fecco shot a 95.
