With all the drama that accompanied the Christian Brothers Academy baseball team’s 5-4, nine-inning victory over Jamesville-DeWitt in their April 30 rematch of last year’s Section III Class A final, the next chapter, to take place on Thursday afternoon, already had eager anticipation.
But a lot of games had to take place beforehand, and the Brothers and Red Rams could not neglect any of them, given the quality of competition.
That included games for both teams against East Syracuse Minoa. CBA took its turn last Monday, and in a tight, tense battle, one big inning made the difference as the Brothers beat the Spartans 5-3.
ESM carried a 2-1 lead into the bottom of the fourth inning, where pitcher Brandon Breen ran into his only trouble, CBA notching three runs to take the lead for good.
James McGlynn pitched five innings for the Brothers before Webb Little, who had thrown all nine innings in the J-D epic, went the last two in nings in relief here. Sam Little led the Brothers with three RBIs, while Aaron Simone and Tom Benz both got two hits, Simone scoring twice. Breen got three hits and one RBI for the Spartans, while Jeff Loder scored twice.
J-D would get its turn against ESM on Wednesday afternoon, but only after both of them had lost non-league battles on Tuesday – J-D to West Genesee 6-4, ESM to Solvay 7-4.
Against the Wildcats, the Red Rams erased an early 2-0 deficit to tie it, 2-2, before WG scored three runs in the fifth inning, and another run in the sixth. Now trailing 6-2, J-D made it interesting in the bottom of the seventh thanks to Xander Ferlenda’s two-run home run, but with the tying run at the plate, Will Randall struck out Dylan McGee to end it.
Meanwhile, ESM never recovered from falling behind Solvay 6-1 in the first two innings. Starter Tyler Harrig got lit up, requiring long relief stings from Nick Pullano and John Temple as Danny Williams, Matt Hunter, Sam Jenkins and Nick Castrello earned on RBI apiece.
And this led to the J-D-ESM match-up, which was not an artistic affair, but one the Red Rams didn’t mind enduring as long as it finished on top, relying on a sixth-inning outburst to take charge and beat the Spartans 9-4.
All told, there were 11 errors – six by J-D, five by ESM. Those fielding mistakes initially hurt the Rams, who fell behind, 4-3, despite a three-run third inning off Tom Ghika, the Spartans’ starter.
But in the top of the sixth, everything change. J-D batted around and poured in six runs off Ghika and relief replacement Shane Krawec. Ferlenda, Brady Wing, Gavin French, Matt Cappelletti and Jake Binder each picked up one RBI.
Mike Sinopoli started for the Rams, lasting five innings before McGee took over in relief. Together, they held ESM to seven hits, with only Matt Hunter getting two hits on the Spartans’ side.
Far from all this, CBA blanked Oswego 11-0, with Emmett Dunn putting together another superb pitching performance, limiting the Buccaneers to four hits while striking out nine.
Three-run rallies in the third and sixth innings, plus a five-run rally in the fifth, gave the Brothers the production it needed. Webb Little had three hits and three RBIs, with Benz adding two hits and two RBIs. Simone, Camillo Spinoso and Conor Gollegly drove in one run apiece.
ESM’s struggles continued Thursday, when it lost, 11-2, to Homer, but J-D kept rolling on Friday, beating Oswego by the same 11-0 margin that CBA did earlier in the week by using a six-run third inning to pull away.
Jake Binder tossed a complete-game shutout, surrendering just four hits while striking out eight. The 12 Rams hits came from 11 different players, with only Cappelletti earning two hits as he picked up three RBIs, with Binder and Kyle Naugle getting two RBIs apiece.
