With each victory, and each impressive effort, the West Genesee baseball team is inching closer to a top seed for the Section III Class AA playoffs that start just after Memorial Day.
During this week’s action, the Wildcats would meet two defending Section III champions, including Friday’s visit to Falcon Park to meet Auburn, the reigning Class AA champions, whom it beat 3-2 in a tense April 22 thriller in Camillus.
But the rematch wasn’t as close, WG continuing to show why its no. 8 state AA ranking is justified by roaring past the Maroons 8-2.
They were scoreless until the top of the third inning, when the Wildcats got to Auburn starter Mike Charles for three runs. WG then made it 5-0 in the fifth inning, and added two more runs in the sixth, plus a run in the seventh to keep the Maroons from getting close.
Defense mattered, with the Wildcats making one error but Auburn committing four errors that led to runs on the other side, negating the fact that the Maroons had twice as many hits – eight, to WG’s four. Still, Will Randall managed a pair of RBIs, while Colin BeVard and Joey Vetter each had one RBI.
Evan Reichel allowed those eight hits in his 5 1/3 innings on the mound, but kept escaping trouble, striking out five without allowing a run before Evan Mills worked 1 2/3 innings of no-hit relief.
One sign of the Wildcats’ growth was the way it handled Fayetteville-Manlius 17-7 last Monday night at Onondaga Community College in an event that raised money for the “More Than a Game” Foundation and Upstate-Golisano Children’s Hospital.
When these teams first met April 13, WG needed two runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to pull out a 6-5 victory. Here, though, the matter was decided long before that point.
The Wildcats broke out of a 3-3 tie with five total runs in the second and third innings, and then erupted for seven runs in the top of the fourth to take a 15-3 lead, eventually earning 14 hits.
BeVard’s home run was one of three hits he recorded, leading to three RBIs. Vetter drove in four runs, most of them with a bases-clearing triple, as Reichel added three hits and an RBI. Brian VanBeveren drove in two runs, with Ryan Greco and Anthony Carrodeagus also earning RBis as Mills pitched 4 2/3 innings to earn a win.
In a non-league game Tuesday against defending Section III Class A champion Jamesville-DeWitt, the Wildcats got pushed hard, but still beat the Red Rams 6-4.
John Schad started for WG and was staked to a 2-0 lead thanks to run-scoring hits from Reichel and Greco. But J-D tied it, 2-2, in the bottom of the fourth thanks to Dylan McGee’s RBi double and Gavin French’s single that plated McGee.
In response, the Wildcats got to J-D reliever Matt Cappeletti for three runs in the top of the fifth and another run in the sixth, Greco adding three more RBIs to give him four for the day.
Randall, trying to close it out in relief, saw his 6-2 lead cut in half when Xander Ferlenda hit a two-run home run in the bottom of the seventh, but with the tying run at the plate, Randall got McGee to look at strike three to end the game.
Having moved to 14-1 on the season with this trio of victories, WG hosts Syracuse Monday and visit Baldwinsville next Thursday before trying to avenge its lone defeat of the season to Cicero-North Syracuse May 18 at the Gillette Road Complex.
