Webb Little got the first encounter between the Christian Brothers Academy and Jamesville-DeWitt baseball teams since last spring’s Section III Class A final underway on Thursday afternooon, throwing the game’s first pitch.
And when the last pitch was thrown, more than two hours and nine innings later, Little was walking home with the winning run.
Alex Ball drew a bass-loaded walk in the bottom of the ninth, allowing Little to cross the plate with the decisive run as the Brothers edged the Red Rams 5-4 in the first of two regular-season meetings between the neighbors and rivals.
This gained, for CBA, a bit of payback for that 11-1 defeat to J-D in the 2014 sectional title game at NBT Bank Stadium, but it also may have set the stage for another post-season encounter down the road.
Both sides entered the game in good form, CBA having won four in a row since a season-opening loss to Syracuse on April 7, J-D winners of five straight following an uneven 2-3 start. Little started for the Brothers against the Rams’ Fairfield-bound right-handed ace, Jake Binder.
Right from the start, the game had action. Sam Little, from center field, threw out Xander Ferlenda trying to score on Dylan McGee’s short fly ball in the top of the first.
Then Webb Little stepped up with one on and one out in the bottom of the first and crushed a Binder delivery deep over the right-field fence, putting CBA up 2-0, only to have Ferlenda retaliate with a two-run shot in the top of the third to tie it, 2-2.
Loading the bases in the bottom of the third, the Brothers scored twice more despite having two runners thrown out. That set the tone for a string of thwarted chances over the next three innings, with Little and Binder getting out of bases-loaded jams in the fourth and fine defense, including a pair of double plays, keeping CBA from pulling away.
J-D still trailed 4-2 going to the top of the seventh. Then Ferlenda led off with a single and, with one out, Binder paid back Little for his earlier home run by sending one over the left-field wall for a game-tying round-tripper.
It stayed 4-4 through a scoreless eighth inning. Though Kyle Naugle relieved Binder, Little remained on the mound for the Brothers, working his strikeout total to nine to help overcome 14 J-D hits – four from Sean Cappelletti, three each from McGee and Brady Wing.
Leading off the bottom of the ninth, Little drew a walk. Tom Benz hit a bad-hop single, and Nick Capozzi reached on a throwing error to load the bases.
Dom Spinoso hit a fly ball, but it was too shallow to run on, so with two out Ball, a pinch-hitter, strode to the plate. Ball worked a 3-0 count, looked at a strike and then saw ball four sail far outside, and a game with plenty of action ended with Little trotting the last 90 feet home for the decisive run.
These two teams will meet again exactly two weeks from now, on May 14, at J-D’s home field.
The week for CBA got underway with an impressive 11-2 win over Marcellus, who entered the game having won four in a row, but unable to stop the Brothers from roaring to a 7-0 lead through five innings and adding four runs in the sixth after the Mustangs finally got on the board.
James McGlynn pitched five innings and struck out six, holding Marcellus to six hits before Webb Little took over in relief. Sam Little earned a team-best three hits as he and Aaron Simone both drove in three runs, while Benz, Ball, Capozzi and William Ierlan had one RBI apiece.
On that same day, J-D smashed Oswego 17-5, largely on the basis of what it did in the first two innings, scoring five times in the first and adding eight runs in the top of the second to make it 13-0 before the Buccaneers could get on the board.
Ferlenda and Patrick Craner set the tone, each of them getting three hits as Ferlenda scored three runs. Gavin French went deep for a home run and produced four RBIs, with Binder, Cappelletti, Ethan Palmer, Frank Mignacca and Casey Kretsch each drove in two runs.
Then both teams won again on Tuesday by big margins. J-D put away Fulton 14-1 with steady production that created a 5-1 lead until it erupted for nine runs in the bottom of the fifth.
Mike Sinopoli pitched 4 1/3 innings and got plenty of support. Palmer and Brady Wing both smashed home runs and earned three RBIs apiece, while McGee’s three hits led to three RBIs of his own. Kretsch added a pair of hits as he and Cappelletti earned one RBI apiece.
For CBA, the featured attraction in an 8-0 shutout over Cortland was pitcher Emmett Dunn, who was close to untouchable. In his complete-game effort, Dunn held the Purple Tigers to three hits, all singles, plus a single walk while recording eight strikeouts.
It helped, too, that the Brothers scored three runs in the first inning and another run in the second to create an early cushion. Four more runs followed in the sixth as Gollegly went deep for a home run and earned four RBIs, while Sam Little doubled twice, added a single and scored two runs. Benz, Eric Little and Webb Little had one RBI apiece.
